Welcoming Their New Atalaya Overlords

Calling to mind newsman Kent Brockman's "I for one welcome our new insect overlords" editorial from The Simpsons, staffers from Creative Loafing-owned alt-weeklies are reacting to the announcement that their papers are now owned by Atalaya Capital Management.

Atalaya paid $5 million for the Tampa-based paper chain, which had gone into Chapter 11 last year after shouldering $40 million dollars in loans (from Atalaya and BIA Digital Partners). The chain owns Creative Loafing papers in its hometown, Atlanta, Charlotte, Sarasota, as well as the Chicago Reader and the Washington City Paper.

The City Paper's Andrew Beaujon tracked the sale yesterday with a series of updates that went from Twitter chatter to confirmation on the paper's City Desk blog. We can probably expect a deeper analysis of the sale from City Paper's editor Erik Wemple, who doubles as a media columnist and blogger.

Atlanta Creative Loafing's Mara Shalhoup sat in on the auction and watched as Ben Eason, the comapny's CEO, "sat silently, blinked several times, and then rocked back and forth in his chair" as he lost a bid (with BIA backing him) to buy the chain for $2.3 million.

Over at the Chicago Reader, Michael Miner conducted an exit interview with Eason, who claimed lender-turned-owner Atalaya offered a lower "stalking horse" bid at the auction to undercut Eason and BIA's bid. "Life goes on," Eason told him. "I and the family are fine. We took our hit already when we filed Chapter 11. We took our hit when the media economy went down. That chapter's over. I'm no poorer or richer today than I was before the ruling." (How nice for him.)

Miner also talked to his new boss, Atalaya's Michael Bogdan, who offered these less-than-reassuring words: "We're not going to say we'll own you guys forever... That is not what investment funds do. But we'll be living with you guys for a while."