The London Times is reporting that Time Out New York is now on the block. The backers of the magazine, which is fond of not paying its freelancers on a timely basis, are hoping that they can sell TONY for $40 million and recoup the 13-year investment. What’s even more interesting is that TONY is allegedly more profitable than the original Time Out magazine based in London. Time Out founder Tony Elliott, who owns one-third of the New York version and cannot afford to buy out his partners, is hoping that he can rustle up some cash. “If somebody offers $10 million, it won’t happen,” says Elliott in the Times article. But given that the Time Out Group Ltd. has shown a loss of £465,000 before taxes during the eleven months leading up to December 2006, perhaps Elliott might wish to be transparent about the current state of his company if he wishes to get more than $10 million. He might also want to start disseminating the measly checks that he still owes to his remaining freelancers to demonstrate his commitment to solvency.
Time Out New York for Sale
– December 3, 2008Posted in: Time Out New York
The Call by Yannick Murphy: The always interesting author of Here They Come and Signed, Mata Hari returns with a novel that whips up a worldview from a rather quirky set of limitations: namely, the call logs that a veterinarian maintains as his son is unexpectedly put into a coma and an unforgiving economy denies him work. What emerges is a surprisingly optimistic, often funny, and very moving account on how one family uses acceptance and forgiveness as a way to atone for hard knocks. (
Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber: Forget Franzen and Eugenides. If you're looking for a social novel that counts, Diana Abu-Jaber is the author you're looking for. Building from the free-form exploration of consciousness and identity in Crescent and the gripping procedural structure of Origin, Abu-Jaber's latest novel is her finest, equally fluent with gutterpunk culture and smarmy real estate men. It has been suggested by The Washington Post's Ron Charles that you will likely gain some pounds while reading this novel. This is certainly true. Abu-Jaber's description of food is so precise that it often made me want to do more cooking. But I very much admired the way in which Abu-Jaber presents all her characters as unwitting victims of rough capitalism, which permits them some dignity even as they perform terrible acts.
The Last of the Live Nude Girls by Sheila McClear: This memoir isn't so much about the decline of the Times Square peepshow, as it is about one young woman's efforts to pull herself up by by her bootstraps when presented with few economic options. Filled with self-introspective candor and a quiet dignity, McClear's story is one that might befall any of us in these volatile times. While McClear does get back on her feet, her book leads one contemplating the terrible fates of other young women now moving to New York and falling into deadlier vocations. (
Ed, the London magazine is in a parlous state. They’ve just made 13 editorial staff redundant, including the Books editor. Quite what will happen to the Books section is not clear.
And I’m intrigued to learn that the habit of not paying freelancers for months is replicated across the Atlantic.