Style Weekly’s Sept. 7, 2021, print edition, the final issue before the paper was shut down last year (Photo by Jessica Ronky Haddad)
After being unceremoniously dumped by hedge fund Alden Global Capital in September, Style Weekly is up and running again.
Richmond’s scrappy alternative newspaper relaunched in mid-December, publishing exclusively online. The staff is small, just returning editor Brent Baldwin and photographer Scott Elmquist along with a host of freelancers, and the content has been streamlined, currently focusing on arts, culture and food news.
Style’s resurrection represents a significant victory for local journalism.
Weeklies like Style play an important role in the media landscape, providing an alternative viewpoint to mainstream daily papers, says Rick Edmonds, a media business analyst at the Poynter Institute. Clawing out of Alden’s trash heap, he says, is a rare occurrence. “I think when alt-weeklies go out of business, typically they just … close,” Edmonds says.
Formerly owned by Tribune Publishing, which was purchased by Alden in May 2021, Style had been shuttered for more than two months when VPM Media Corp. struck a deal to purchase and revive the weekly in mid-November. The nonprofit plans to devise a long-term strategy over the next several months.
Alden is known for buying up newspaper properties across the country, gutting newsrooms and selling off assets. The hedge fund is now attempting to purchase Lee Enterprises, which owns the Richmond Times-Dispatch, though Lee’s board unanimously rejected Alden’s $144 million buyout offer in December.
Helping Style survive the clutches of the vulture capitalists wasn’t easy, Baldwin says.
“We fought hard to keep it alive. I’m just extremely grateful to VPM and its board for believing in us and stepping in at the last minute to save Style,” says Baldwin, who worked long hours to find a buyer in the weeks after Alden announced the paper’s closure. “We feel lucky to have survived something like this.”
Richmond magazine Editorial Director Jessica Ronky Haddad, News Editor Scott Bass, Senior Photographer Jay Paul, and Arts & Entertainment Editor Craig Belcher all previously worked at Style Weekly.