Baltimore City Paper closing
Baltimore City Paper — the free alternative weekly that has provided news, music and arts information for 40 years — will be closed this year by its owner, Baltimore Sun Media Group, the City Paper reported on its website earlier this month.
But City Paper Editor Brandon Soderberg isn't ready to give up on the paper's future. He used the paper's story of the closure to ask potential buyers to save the weekly paper.
Baltimore Sun Media Group spokeswoman Renee Mutchnik cited declining ad revenue at Baltimore City Paper as the reason, a challenge faced by other alternative weeklies across the nation. The City Paper in Philadelphia was closed by its owner, Broad Street Media Group, in 2015.
“It became clear to us this past fall that we would cease publishing City Paper sometime in 2017," Mutchnik said in a statement to City Paper. "Details about the closing date are still being discussed. This is a difficult decision and we are mindful of how it affects our employees, the readers and advertisers.”
The Baltimore Sun Media Group purchased City Paper from longtime owner Times-Shamrock Communications in 2014. The Sun was aiming to lure City Paper's younger audience, an effort it tried with its own publication, b. The media group shut down b a year later.
