St Petersberg Times – A New York hedge fund wrested control of the Creative Loafing newspaper chain Tuesday, promising to keep the weekly tabloids running in Tampa, Sarasota, Atlanta, Chicago, Charlotte, N.C., and Washington, D.C.
In a bankruptcy auction in Tampa, Atalaya Capital Management’s $5 million bid blew away the field. Creative Loafing’s longtime owners, the Eason family, opened the bidding by offering $2.32 million, but didn’t counter when Atalaya upped the ante.
Ben Eason, effectively removed as chief executive of the chain Tuesday, vowed to start afresh this week with a new online publication based in Tampa. Eason had run family publications for close to 20 years.
