New Owner For Philadelphia's Weekly 'City Paper'
By Pat Loeb
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Philadelphia's free weekly City Paper has been sold to the company that provides the free commuter daily, Metro. And the new owner is promising to keep City Paper alive and thriving.
At first, it may seem an unlikely merger -- a short-form daily and an enterprising weekly -- but Metro CEO Yggers Mortensen says it's a good fit.
"We like City Paper a lot," he tells KYW Newsradio, and we always felt it would be interesting to compensate our daily paper with a weekly product which was strong in the local community and cover different aspects than we did."
Mortensen declined to give the purchase price. He says staff were laid off if they duplicated the jobs of Metro staffers, such as publisher, but its writers -- and editor Lil Swanson -- are staying.
Swanson says she's optimistic.
"I'm all about growing the paper, and I think today will help us do that," she said.
Swanson says the weekly (begun in the '70s as a WXPN newsletter and spun off in the '80s) will retain its distinctive voice.
