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Creative Loafing Inc. buys back share it sold to Cox four years ago

Creative Loafing Inc., the company that owns this newspaper and three other alternative newsweeklies, has purchased back a 25 percent share it sold to Cox Enterprises almost four years ago.

Ben Eason, CLI’s CEO, said the deal went through Tuesday and goes into effect immediately. He wouldn’t disclose the purchase price, except to say that Cox “pretty much got their money back, plus a little.”

Cox, the media giant that owns The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, as well as other major media outlets in Atlanta, bought the 25 percent share in CLI in 2000 for roughly $5 million, at the time calling the alternative weekly business a “terrific growth market.” Although the minority interest meant Cox had no influence over CL’s editorial direction, that didn’t stop critics from questioning why a chain of alternative weeklies would invite the competition into its bed.

The relationship hit the skids last year, when the AJC began publishing AccessAtlanta, an entertainment weekly that competes directly with CL for readers and advertisers. Six of the eight CLI board members claimed that the other two board members — the Cox contingent represented by Jay Smith and Charles “Buddy” Solomon — had used information about CL to help launch the AJC weekly. Smith called the charges “utterly absurd.”

This week, Eason said he was optimistic about a future unencumbered by Cox. “We’re excited to move forward without having to look over our shoulder to see what these guys might be picking up. I still feel pissed off about the whole thing, but I’m happy it’s done with.”

Reached by phone, Smith said, “The most important thing I could say would be to wish Ben and particularly the CL staff well. On a personal level, I would hope — although I guess it doesn’t really much matter now — that with the passage of time, Ben would come to see that Cox was a pretty good partner and behaved appropriately as a partner.”

-- Steve Fennessy






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