Jury sides with Guardian - SF Weekly must pay

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 3/5/8 | Meredith May

[SmithL]

SAN FRANCISCO - -- A San Francisco jury awarded up to $15 million in damages today to the Bay Guardian alternative weekly newspaper, to be paid by its competitor, SF Weekly, for unfair business practices.

The superior court jury agreed with Guardian Publisher Bruce Brugmann's claims that SF Weekly purposely undercut the Guardian with below-cost display ad rates, then used infusions from its Phoenix-based parent company, Village Voice Media, to stay afloat.

[SmithL]

Cat Fight!

[SmithL]

fyi

[Wiseghy]

I wonder what “below cost” means, especially for a free, Socialist rag like The Guardian.

I’d be willing to bet that their ad costs have gone up 85% in the last 5 years, just as most print media has.

[GSWarrior]

Why does the left in the Bay Area dislike the SFWeekly so much?

[ccmay]

Pretty damned funny, as you can count on the alternative newspapers in the Village Voice chain to issue shrill denunciations of corporate chicanery in any other circumstance.

-ccm