Due to a tight budget, City Paper dumped its comics page at the end of 2011, just nine months after bringing it back after a long hiatus. more ›

After 26 years, City Paper sportswriter Dave McKenna is leaving the alt-weekly. We talk to City Paper Managing Editor Mike Madden about this major shift for the publication. more ›

Over at City Paper, Lydia DePillis makes the case why Trader Joe's is the inevitable centerpiece of a new retail and residential development going up at 14th and U streets NW. If she's wrong, she'll shop at Walmart. more ›

Justin Bieber headlined this year's Christmas in Washington show, and the Post was on it. Not to be outdone, the City Paper reviewed Bieber's holiday single. Not to be outdone either, the Post had some outtakes from the Biebs. Not to be outdone, we've jumped on to the Bieber bandwagon. more ›

Put down your social networks and get ready for a party, because it was one year ago today that Post columnist Courtland Milloy celebrated the defeat of Mayor Adrian Fenty by openly mocking the people that voted for him -- by calling them "myopic little twits." more ›

Over the weekend, Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder pulled his lawsuit against the Washington City Paper, ending a months-long saga that had made him even more unlikeable than he usually is. Here, we break down some of the numbers related to the battle between Snyder and the free press. more ›

Not only did he drop his lawsuit against the City Paper, but he went on to defeat the New York Giants in his season opener. more ›

In the District, it's the owner of the football-team-that-shall-not-be-named that's suing a local publication. But for the District's northern-most urban neighbor, though, it's an elected official that went after a journalist. more ›

As promised, Dan Snyder refiled his lawsuit against the Washington City Paper inside the District yesterday. In an op-ed published Monday night, Snyder claimed that the suit would be "essentially the same." Apparently, dropping the hedge fund which owns City Paper's parent company and including City Paper columnist Dave McKenna as a defendant while burying previous claims that the paper was anti-Semitic and attacked his wife falls under Snyder's definition of "the same." more ›

Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson issued an injunction which has temporarily lifted the National Football League's players lockout. Many players around the country, including at least one Washington footballer, took the opportunity to try and get back to work. R******s owner Dan Snyder, following that lead, took the opportunity to remind everyone that he's still suing the Washington City Paper over Dave McKenna's "The Cranky Redskins Fan's Guide to Dan Snyder". Oh, and also to make sure no one forgets that he's acting like a petulant child. more ›

The Washington City Paper unveiled a new logo in print and on the web this morning, shifting away from the brand it had used since 1996. The logo revamp is the most visible part of a cleaner look for the alt-weekly, which includes several changes inside the paper. more ›

As pretty much everyone can agree that Daniel Snyder's lawsuit of the Washington City Paper's "slanderous" article is not only an exercise in futility but also horrible for his public image, Twitter helps WCP out by creating their own #snyderlibel meme in a showing of solidarity for the alternative paper. more ›

After Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder filed a lawsuit against the Washington City Paper which a Redskins general counsel claimed would "presumably quickly outstrip the asset value" of the publication, the newspaper has announced the establishment of a legal defense fund. more ›

Dan Snyder has finally broken his silence. The Washington Redskins owner spoke up this afternoon about precisely why he's decided to send his legal hounds after the Washington City Paper over Dave McKenna's brilliant "The Cranky Redskins Fan's Guide to Dan Snyder." And you'll never be able to guess why: it's because he "loves the media," duh! more ›

UPDATE: Tkacik tells Fishbowl that she and the City Paper have officially parted ways. Regarding Madden's comment that Tkacik would still be working as a "contributing writer, Tkacik tells Betsy Rothstein: “We haven’t worked out a contract yet, but it’s possible.”

Pioneering blogger Moe Tkacik's role at the Washington City Paper is changing, but five months after she took a job writing for the alt-weekly. more ›

Congratulations are in order for Washington City Paper food critic Tim Carman, who will be moving over to the Washington Post on December 6. Carman's move was announced this afternoon on the Post's All We Can Eat blog, which Carman will now helm, in addition to penning stories for the front page and Food section of the paper. (DCist co-founder and current WCP assistant managing editor Mike Grass will be handling City Paper's Young and Hungry blog on an interim basis.) Carman joins Mike DeBonis as City Paper scribes who have recently jumped over to the Post; it's refreshing to see WCP journalists sticking around town, and we look forward to seeing if Carman can turn WaPo's food blog into a destination like DeBonis has with his Post blog on local politics. more ›

This week, the Washington Post released its iPad application. DCist reviewed the application and found it to be less than impressive. more ›

Former Washington City Paper staffer Michael Schaffer has been hired to return to the publication as its top editor. The news came via an announcement on City Desk this morning.

The 36-year-old D.C. native and City Paper alum, currently living in Philadelphia, was named the paper's new editor on Monday. (Schaffer and his family will be moving back to the D.C. area as soon as he can find a place, or gets sick of riding Megabus, or whichever comes first.) more ›

Erik Wemple, editor-in-chief of the Washington City Paper, is leaving the alt-weekly for higher ground, City Desk reports. more ›

New York hedge fund Atalaya Capital Management were the winners in a bankruptcy auction in Tampa today to see who would control the Creative Loafing newspaper chain, owners of the Washington City Paper and other alternative weeklies, reports the St. Petersburg Times. Atalaya was Creative Loafing's largest creditor by far, and they took control of the company by significantly outbidding a partnership made up of now former Loafing CEO Ben Eason and another hedge fund creditor, BIA Digital Partners. Atalaya offered $5 million, while the Eason group opened with $2.32 million. more ›

Dish of the Week: Strip club dining more ›

If you didn't already spend your lunch hour, like we did, listening to the series of voicemail recordings, leaked to the Washington City Paper, that Marion Barry left for ex-girlfriend and alleged "stalkee" Donna Watts-Brighthaupt, we can verify that they make for fairly fascinating listening. The tapes (and the Loose Lips column that goes with them) have even started to become a bit of an internet sensation, if the WCP's Twitter feed is any judge: "Marion Barry killed our web server :'( ... we're working on bringing it back to life," they updated earlier this afternoon. The web site and the tapes are both back up now though, so take a gander, or if you can't listen in your office, they're also offering some typed up partial transcripts. more ›

The Washington City Paper will continue to be owned by Creative Loafing Inc., thanks to a ruling handed down today by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Caryl E. Delano in Tampa. CEO Ben Eason will retain control of the alternative newspaper chain despite an attempt by creditor Atalaya to take over the company, reports Wayne Garcia from Loaf HQ in Tampa, who was careful to get the name of the D.C. publication correct this time. Eason is quoted as being "psyched" by the ruling, but his enthusiasm appears to need at least some tempering.

Delano also struck a cautious tone, saying that she believed the company has “an uphill battle” ahead to have any reorganization plan confirmed by the creditors since Atalaya is far and wide the biggest creditor and could choose to vote against any plan. Delano suggested mediation for the two sides, but after a 30-minute recess in which the two sides’ lawyers talked by telephone, the idea of having a mediator appointed was tabled for now, at least until April 20 when Creative Loafing reveals more details of its reorganization plan, including possible new investors.

The Washington Business Journal has a rather curious update on the bankruptcy proceedings for Creative Loafing, the owner of the Washington City Paper, among other publications.

Judge Caryl E. Delano will decide whether the Tampa chain will remain under control of publisher Ben Eason or Atalaya Capital Management, which says it’s owed $31 million in loans used by the paper to purchase Washington City Times and Chicago Reader in 2007, according to Creative Loafing reporter Wayne Garcia. The decision is expected at 2 p.m.

Yesterday Creative Loafing, the owner of the Washington City Paper, announced it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In a post on City Desk, City Paper editor Erik Wemple quoted Loaf CEO Ben Eason playing the filing off as not as bad as it sounds, since bankruptcy will give the company the breathing room it needs to finish a structural reorganization directed toward the internet. TambaBay.com's The Feed blog dug into the Loaf's financials, arguing that despite assurances to the contrary, it does appear as though debt accrued in the course of purchasing the City Paper and the Chicago Reader last year played a role in the bankruptcy. more ›

Early last week Fishbowl DC had more about the coming changes to the Washington City Paper we first reported at the end of August. Now the Georgetown Voice has the full story in its latest edition, which confirms that the alt weekly is undergoing a massive transition away from long-form features and investigative pieces and toward a larger online presence. Within a few weeks, the paper will cease to run its trademark lengthy cover story, instead likely running a sort of wire cover story common to all Creative Loafing titles. Sounds like things are more than a little grim in the City Paper newsroom these days: “Now [the response is] more outright angst and anger and misery over what’s going on,” the Voice quotes editor Erik Wemple. Read the whole thing. UPDATE: Wemple wrote to tell us we've got the future of City Paper covers all wrong: "No one here has ever, ever talked about, proposed or even considered publishing "wire" cover stories from Creative Loafing papers." We definitely shouldn't have used the word 'likely' there -- a source had told us something like this might be in the works, but it's definitely not something the City Paper intends to do, according to Wemple. As for what readers can expect to see on City Paper covers in the future, we've asked Wemple to fill us in, and will let you know if and when we hear anything. more ›

The Washington City Paper launched a new "sex & gender" blog on its web site this week, called The Sexist, penned by staffer Amanda Hess. Hess will leave behind her old Show & Tell column to helm the new feature. The blog is just getting rolling, but mercifully it looks nothing at all like the weekly's now defunct, dreadful confessional sex and dating diary, Melanie Boyer's About Last Night. Hess tells us she intends this new venture to be "something else entirely" from the old sex blog, "a blend of snarky feminist commentary, alternative scene reporting, and in-depth coverage of District health and identity issues." One recent post identifies the price tag rape victims had to pay for a rape kit in Wasilla while Sarah Palin was mayor ($300 to $1200!). We look forward to reading more. more ›

Word came down today that more staff cuts are coming for Washington City Paper. According to a newsroom insider, Creative Loafing—which acquired the City Paper along with the Chicago Reader alternative weekly in summer 2007, and proceeded to lay off many production and editorial staffers by the end of that year—told City Paper staff that they would need to cut the publication's budget by $170,000. City Paper ran a profit for 2007, apparently, but with the summer doldrums came a couple of bad months for advertising sales. The Loaf's line with its creditors is said to be so thin that even a somewhat foreseeable setback must result in staff cuts. UPDATE: City Paper Editor-in-Chief Erik Wemple confirms the cuts: "Like a lot of media companies, we are going through an exceptionally rough period, and indeed we are discussing how to cut expenses. I don't want to cite any figures at this point because we are trying our best as a company to minimize the impact. But yes, layoffs are part of the discussion." more ›

Could you please buy Mike DeBonis a little video camera? Nothing fancy, just a small handheld job that will produce web-quality moving images and sound? He's got this really funny partycrashing post up that I'm totally envious of, but I want to see the actual dance moves of D.C. Council members, not just blurry, underexposed stills. Also, is that Vincent Gray wearing white jeans in the background there? That's a pretty bold fashion choice for the chairman. KTHXBAI. more ›

Color us honored! When we thumbed through the massive, two-lb. "Best Of D.C." edition of this week's Washington City Paper, we were surprised and delighted to find that publication's readers had awarded us "Best D.C. Web Site." Best locally-focused blog, OK, but best web site? Washingtonpost.com was a runner up? Allow all of us here at DCist HQ to deliver a collective "gee golly." That was just awfully nice of you, City Paper readers. more ›