Layoffs Rock Washington Examiner; Weekly Magazine & Website in the Offing

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The free, right-wing daily Washington Examiner newspaper will morph into a weekly magazine and a Website in June, but will do so with 87 fewer employees, the paper's owner, Denver-based Clarity Media Group, Inc. ("CMG") announced this week.

According to accounts in the Baltimore Business Journal and Washington City Paper, the Examiner, which is published in Springfield, Virginia, and circulated throughout the greater Washington, D.C. area, will shift its focus to political news and drop local news coverage.  The pink-slipped staffers from the editorial, advertising and business departments, will continue to work at the Examiner through its last print edition on June 14, a few days before the weekly magazine and daily Web site versions debut.

Management, including editor Stephen G. Smith, executive editor Mark Tapscott and digital managing editor Jennifer Peebles will stay on after the transformation, according to the Baltimore Business Journal article. The target audience for the revamped Examiner includes government employees and professionals from academia, politics and public affairs.

The nine-year-old CMG is owned by Philip Anschutz, and includes the Neo-Conservative "Bible" Weekly Standard magazine in its stable. Another of its publications, The Baltimore Examiner, shut down four years ago after a two-year run.

Washington (Hard) Times: Staff Layoffs Mount

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Roughly 20 Washington Times staffers were pink-slipped today, with the photography department and Web desk especially hard hit, according to reports by rival Washington Post and the Washington City Paper.

Times Executive Editor David Jackson imparted the bad news in a group announcement. Reportedly, terminated employees will receive a half-week's severance pay for each year of service and continued health care coverage through January.

Although the Times hasn't formally identified those who were laid off, staffers who tweeted that they were among the casualties include sportswriter Patrick Stevens and Steve Repsher, who had the dubious honor of being laid off by the Times in 2009, and later reinstated, only to be axed a second time.

The Washington Times was founded in 1982 by a media conglomerate of Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church, News World Communications ("NWU"). Rev. Moon and a handful of former Times editors acquired the broadsheet daily from NWU in 2010 for $1, and apparently, got a raw deal.

UPDATE: 'Skins Owner Punts Libel Suit Against Washington City Paper

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeMaybe he's just feeling giddy over defeating the favored New York Giants 28-14 on Sunday, but Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder has ended his seven-month war against the Washington City Paper, parent Creative Loafing (both owned by the Atalaya Capital Management LP hedge fund) and writer Dave McKenna, dropping his $2 million libel suit over The Cranky Redskins' Fan Guide to Dan Snyder article that appeared in the weekly in November 2010 (see "TUOL" posts 6/20/11, 4/27/11, 2/3/11).

Snyder agreed to dismiss the suit and each side agreed to bear its own legal costs and release one another from all future claims, the  Washington Post reports. Snyder sought general and punitive damages against the defendants over the article that chronicled alleged transgressions and public relations embarrassments by the controversial team owner.  City Paper supporters ponied up $34,000 to help the paper defray legal costs, which the defendant said was far exceeded in defense of the suit.

UPDATE: City Paper Tries to "SLAPP" Away Redskins' Owner's Libel Suit

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeThe Washington CityPaper last week filed a motion to dismiss Washington Redskins' owner Dan Snyder's defamation suit against it (see "TUOL" posts 4/27/11, 2/3/11), according to The Washington Post.

Snyder sued the paper and its parent, Atalaya Capital Management LP, in February 2011, regarding an unflattering portrayal of the owner entitled "The Cranky Redskins Fans Guide to Dan Snyder," written by defendant Dave McKenna that was published in November 2010. The CityPaper's motion to dismiss filed in Superior Court relies on The District of Columbia Anti-SLAPP Act of 2010 [D.C. Law 18-0351], enacted by Congress, which also stays Snyder's discovery against the defendants.

Anti-SLAPP ("Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation") measures are intended to deflect litigation aimed at intimidating and silencing critics concerning matters of public concern through the threat of costly lawsuits. The CityPaper claims a letter from Snyder's counsel to Atalaya in November 2010, that demanded an apology and retraction and addressed the prospect of legal action supports the anti-SLAPP argument.

UPDATE: Redskins Owner Strategy: Re-file Libel Suit; Boost Money-Throwing Game

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeWashington Redskins owner Dan Snyder has returned from the proverbial drawing board with a refurbished defamation lawsuit against the Washington City Paper (see "TUOL" post 2/3/11) for an unflattering portrayal of him in a November 19, 2009, article entitled: "The Cranky Redskins Fan's Guide to Dan Snyder," according to The Washington Post.

The all-new, if not improved, lawsuit drops hedge fund Atalaya Capital Management LP, owner of the Washington City Paper and Creative Loafing, as a defendant, but adds the author of the article at issue, Dave McKenna, a much shallower pocket than the money fund, to be sure.  The re-filed complaint also shifts its emphasis from alleged anti-Semetic remarks by the article to claims by Snyder that the article contains false, malicious statements that held him up to ridicule in the business community and among Redskins fans, already impatient with the team's 6-10 showing in 2010.

In his original suit, Snyder sought $2 million in damages from the City Paper  for allegations in the article he deemed libelous, such as that he forged names as a telemarketer for Snyder Communications and was tossed from the board of directors of Six Flags Entertainment Corp.

Is it possible to lock-out an NFL owner from the courtroom?

Redskins' Thin-Skinned Owner Sues Weekly for Libel

Image via WikipediaDissatisfied with his portrayal in a November 19, 2009, profile in the weekly Washington City Paper entitled The Cranky Redskin Fan's Guide to Dan Snyder, and having time on his hands because his team isn't playing in this weekend's Super Bowl for a nineteenth consecutive year, Dan Snyder has found an outlet for his competitive juices in the New York Supreme Court.

In Daniel M. Snyder v.  Atalaya Capital Management LP et al (Index No. 150015/2011), Snyder is seeking $2 million in general damages in a two-count complaint alleging defamation against the City Paper. Snyder, who ponied up $800 million to acquire the 'Skins in 1999, alleges the unflattering article was replete with libelous statements, including that he was caught forging names as a telemarketer with Snyder Communications, that he purportedly boasted his wealth was amassed from diabetes and cancer victims, and that he was ousted from the board of directors of Six Flags Entertainment Corp. amusement park chain.

Snyder's counsel also complained that the cover art accompanying the article that depicts a defaced illustration of him with scribbled-on horns and a goatee was an egregious anti-Semetic slur, a bold assertion when the team you own is called the "Redskins."

The City Paper contends that it offered Snyder an opportunity to write a guest column responding to the article and welcomed a sit-down with him and editors at which he could present information pointing about alleged misstatements about him in the article.  The weekly's attorney claims the lawsuit is specious and that staff writer Dave McKenna's article is a "tongue-in-cheek" opinion piece fully protected by the First Amendment.

The publication denied any anti-Semetic motivation for the art accompanying the article, claiming that the illustration was meant to depict the actions of a frustrated Redskins fan defacing an image of Snyder. The plaintiff pledged to donate any judgment awarded, if he prevails, to a fund to benefit the homeless.

As a public figure, Snyder faces an uphill struggle to prevail in his libel case, as he will have to prove with convincing clarity that the City Paper published the profile with actual malice, that is, that the editor published the purported misstatements about Snyder knowing they were false, or with reckless disregard of whether they were false.

Snyder would be better served trying to remedy his team's 6-10 record in 2010 and working toward avoiding an NFL management lockout that would kill the 2012 season.