Friday, July 15, 2011

Ladue News publisher, editor start new paper

"A group of Ladue News employees have left the St. Louis-area Lee Enterprises lifestyle paper to start a rival publication. 

The new Town & Style will debut Feb. 9. Thirty issues are planned for the first year; a weekly schedule is planned after that. It will be led by former Ladue News publisher Lauren Rechand and editor Dorothy Weiner, and will employee about 15 people. Eight more former Ladue News employees have already joined Town & Style.

Weiner told the St. Louis Business Journal that Lee's corporate structure forced her, and several other Ladue News employees, to leave that publication. 

"There's no question that Lee Enterprises, the parent company (of Ladue News), is very bottom-line focused," she said. "Ladue News has always been something of a family business. Even after it was sold to Pulitzer, we were left alone and we were allowed to run independently. Recently, there is more of a shift to (Lee) homogenizing all holdings in St. Louis. That was what people rebelled against."

(Via e-mail; send tips, links and memos to lee.ent.watch@gmail.com.)"

Source of Lee Enterprises Blog Post