Word spread on social media……
I've got some horrible news, our publisher Charles Womack waited until we went to print today then shut down the whole paper after 31 years just like that. Everyone out of work. No severance. No nothing. It's been real.
— Ryan Pitkin (@pitkin_ryan) October 31, 2018
…Before the mainstream media reports Charlotte’s Creative Loafing abruptly ceased publication and laid off its staff. According to the Charlotte Observer, publisher Charles Womack—who owns Greensboro-based Yes!Weekly—sold the publication to his 28-year-old son Alex Womack:
Creative Loafing said in the statement that new owner Alex Womack, 28, studies “mind, spirit, & human growth” at Mindvalley University, which, according to its website, is “a month-long transformational event, for all ages.” Womack has worked as a business development consultant for a mobile app development firm in Raleigh called Kapok Digital for the last three years.
“I am very grateful for the opportunity to acquire Creative Loafing from my Dad & excited about changing the business model into a digital first alternative news multi-media company that exists to serve & create value for its employees, readers & partners,” Womack said.
Full disclosure–I briefly was a columnist for Yes!Weekly a few years ago. I don’t have anything bad to say about Charles Womack, other that it took a bit of doing to get my pay after I was abruptly (there’s that word again) informed the paper was going in a different direction.
