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Your friendly local altweekly was put up for sale by Times-Shamrock, our previous owner, back in August, along with other papers in its portfolio. Since then, it’s been business as usual around these parts except for that pesky “For Sale” sign sitting in our front yard.

Today, that sign was taken down.

Euclid Media Group, a newly formed company led by Scene publisher Chris Keating, San Antonio Current publisher Michael Wagner, and Clevelander Andrew Zelman, completed the purchase of Scene.

It’s all good news: Your paper is now locally owned, we’re not going anywhere, and the ownership group is committed to building on Scene’s strong tradition in Cleveland that dates back to 1970.

Euclid Media Group also purchased three other altweeklies from Times-Shamrock: the San Antonio Current, Orlando Weekly, and the Detroit Metro Times.

The press release from the new ownership group is below.

DECEMBER 23, 2013, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Newly Formed Euclid Media Group to Acquire Times-Shamrock Alternative Weekly Properties

CLEVELAND, OH— Newly formed Euclid Media Group announced today that it has purchased four alternative weekly properties formerly owned by Times-Shamrock Communications of Scranton, PA. The purchase includes the Cleveland Scene, the Detroit Metro Times, Orlando Weekly and the San Antonio Current as well as their associated websites and events.

Euclid Media will be based out of Cleveland, OH, and led by seasoned media executives, Chris Keating of Shaker Heights, OH and Michael Wagner, of San Antonio, TX, along with Andrew Zelman of Cleveland, Ohio. Keating and Wagner had been two of the publishers operating properties for Times-Shamrock.

Of the acquisition, Chris Keating said, “The strength of our brands has always centered on serving our local communities with excellent journalism. This will be no different as we expand our digital and mobile content and allow our advertisers to target our local audience. Not only do we see growth opportunities within the digital space, but also through the expansion of our events, creative services, and other niche publications.”

Under the terms of the sale, Euclid Media Group will own and operate the following print publications, corresponding digital and event properties: Scene (Cleveland), Metro Times (Detroit), Orlando Weekly (Orlando) and Current (San Antonio).

Andrew Zelman added, “ I am excited about the opportunity to work with Chris and Michael and about the prospects of growing the business and serving our markets for a long time. These publications and websites all play a prominent role in the communities they serve and we are planning to continue that tradition.”

Euclid Media will continue to provide hard-hitting, culturally savvy alternative journalism in each of its local markets, growing each brand’s audience across multimedia platforms.

About Euclid Media: Euclid Media is a privately held media company formed in 2013 to
acquire the San Antonio Current, the Detroit Metro Times, the Cleveland Scene and Orlando Weekly. Euclid Media is focused on the multimedia production of relevant news and events for the culturally engaged consumer.

About the Cleveland Scene: The Scene is Cleveland’s award-winning source of hard-hitting journalism, compelling feature writing and insightful commentary. For more info, visit www.Clevescene.com.

About the Detroit Metro Times: For more than 30 years Metro Times has been Detroit’s premiere alternative source for news, arts, culture, music, film, food, fashion and more. For more info, visit www.MetroTimes.com.

About Orlando Weekly: The Orlando Weekly has served as Orlando’s award-winning alternative newsweekly since the 1980s. Readers turn to the magazine each week for its events calendar and coverage in movies, local music, arts and culture and food. For more info, visit www.OrlandoWeekly.com.

About the San Antonio Current: The San Antonio Current has served as the city’s only award-winning multimedia source of alternative news, events and culture since 1986. The Current provides readers with incisive investigations, thought-provoking commentary and compelling coverage of the city’s cultural landscape. Fore more info, visit www.SACurrent.com.

This article appears in Dec 18-24, 2013.

Vince Grzegorek has been with Scene since 2007 and editor-in-chief since 2012. He previously worked at Discount Drug Mart and Texas Roadhouse.

15 replies on “Cleveland Scene Sold! (We’re Not Going Anywhere!)”

  5. Scene has squeezed about two more years (max) out of its lifespan. Then it’s off to the great indie paper graveyard up in the sky. A shame, too, because it’s one of the only publications that keeps the Plain Dealer halfway in check, and sometimes scoops them because they don’t want to offend any of their advertisers that might be the subject of a story, or offend any of the powerful politicians or powerful business people that play their quid pro quo games with them.

    Even so, Grzegorek, readers should still be heckling you after that awful Randy Lerner & Family story. If Scene had died after that, it would have been perfect timing. Even now, it affects your own credibility and Scene’s credibility. He gave you an exclusive with your promise that you would powder puff it, and you were manipulated and did the fawning quid pro quo thing in return. You compromised all of your professional integrity in exchange for an exclusive, much of which proved to be fairy tale false. Not sure how you can still look at yourself in the mirror after that. It was contrary to everything Scene is supposed to be, and permanently torched some of the publication’s credibility. Once you’ve burned that, it’s almost impossible to get it back.

  6. More great stuff exposing things like the art museum cover-up and the Plain Dealer’s editor being in cahoots, a lot less (and hopefully never again) stuff mimicking the Plain Dealer by being in bed with the subject of a story. That Lerner story still lingers here like a bad rash.

  12. Nowhere to go but up from the depths of the current waste of pulp put out in recent years. Good luck (truly because we need something resembling journalism in Cleveland) to the new owners.

  15. Thinner and thinner…a shrinking alt weekly for a shrinking city. All-digital format by 2016. So eat it up now before it all goes away.

    Chuckles the Clown

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