Huge changes are coming to the Washington City Paper, the alt-weekly announced today. Editor Michael Schaffer and Lydia DePillis, who writes the Housing Complex column, are joining The New Republic as the political magazine rebuilds itself under new owner and editor-in-chief Chris Hughes. Managing Editor Mike Madden is stepping up to take Schaffer’s place; Arts Editor Jonathan L. Fischer will be the City Paper’s new No. 2.
Talking to Poynter’s Andrew Beaujon (himself a former City Paper managing editor), Schaffer describes the decision to leave as an agonizing one:
I don’t feel like I’m fleeing anything. Even after the pay cut, I’ve felt committed to WCP-I viewed them as part of the temporary pain associated with trying to market the paper for sale, an effort I was working on. So this has been possibly the most difficult decision of my life: I love City Paper, always wanted to be its editor, and have a fair amount of faith in its future. But I was blown away by the picture of ambition and growth that Frank and Chris laid out for TNR. I think its going to be one of the most exciting places to be in journalism in the next few years, and I’m pumped to be part of it.
In March, City Paper employees learned they would be taking a 5 percent pay cut as the publication was put up for sale by its current owner, Atalaya Capital Management.
DePillis, who last week won an AltWeeklies Award for best individual blog, will write about technology at The New Republic.
Schaffer, Madden and DePillis all started at City Paper in 2010, not long after another staffing exodus that saw Beaujon, Erik Wemple and Amanda Hess all leave for then-new TBD.
As the newly named editor, Madden writes in a newsroom memo that he finds himself in a similar situation to interim D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson:
Like Phil Mendelson, up until a few weeks ago, I didn’t expect to be moving to a position of greater power and responsibility in the District right now. Fortunately, unlike Phil Mendelson, there are no felonies involved in this change. Or at least, none that Schaffer has disclosed to the rest of us.
As a third-generation Native Washingtonian®, albeit one who was spirited out of the city to the ‘burbs by my parents shortly after birth at GW Hospital, I’ve spent far more time reading City Paper than editing it. For the most part, I’m glad there aren’t many vestiges left of the 15-year-old Mike Madden who used to grab each week’s paper at the Tower Records on Rockville Pike, but the love for what the people in this building do is one of the things that haven’t ever changed about me. So I’m excited to be moving into the office next door — mostly because of all of you, who are why the paper’s so fun to work at and read. (Also, for what it’s worth, my suburban parents plan to move into the city sometime this year.)
Moving into the office I’m writing this from will be Jon Fischer, whose work as arts editor has been stellar since before I arrived here in 2010. From pitching entire concept issues to assigning, editing, and writing fantastic cover features, blog posts, and everything in between, Fischer’s kept the paper smack in the middle of the city’s arts, entertainment, and cultural scene. As managing editor, he probably won’t get to go on many more City Paper overseas assignments, but I’m looking forward to setting his creativity loose on the whole paper.
That will mean the arts editor post is open. More details on how we’ll fill that and other impending vacancies TK.
Finally, I know you all join me in wishing Mike Schaffer well at the new TNR, and in being sorry to see him go. Schaffer reinvigorated a paper that had made a lot of news for media reporters in the years before he arrived — sale, bankruptcy, and the departure of most of its staff, among other shocks to the system. City Paper is doing fantastic work these days, thanks to his leadership, and I’m looking forward to seeing what he does with a few million dollars’ worth of Facebook status updates behind him. (Also, I told him he’s welcome to pitch us freelance blog posts to occupy his spare time.)
We’ve got more excellent stuff ahead of us, and I can’t wait to work on it with you. I know the big “for sale” sign out front is a little distracting, and I want to thank you all for pretty much ignoring it and continuing to kick ass, day after day and week after week. I very much hope to have news to share on that front soon.
If we had a catchy motto for the paper, this would be the place to insert it with an exhorting exclamation mark, but alas, newspaper mottos are even more out of date than print classified ads. So I’ll just sign off instead.
Thanks.
Mike
And, just like Beaujon, I must add a lengthy disclosure, so here goes: I have been a contributing writer to the Washington City Paper since April 2010 and have worked with Schaffer, Madden, DePillis and extensively with Fischer. I also gave Fischer one of his first jobs in journalism—editing the arts section of the student newspaper at Brandeis University.
