Creative Loafing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Creative Loafing is the name of four alternative weekly newspapers published by Tampa Bay, Florida-based Creative Loafing, Inc. Creative Loafing has editions published in Atlanta, Georgia, Charlotte, North Carolina, Tampa Bay and Sarasota, Florida. All four newspapers share some columns and articles, but each city's edition focuses on local reporting of news, culture, and entertainment. The Tampa Bay and Sarasota editions were published under the name Weekly Planet from 1994 until September 2006.

Creative Loafing Atlanta (ISSN 0889-8685) is the oldest of the four papers, being first published in 1972. It currently has the largest circulation of the four papers at around 130,000, making it one of the top twenty alternative weeklies indexed by the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. In 1987, the owners of Atlanta's Creative Loafing established a paper under the same name in Charlotte, North Carolina. Creative Loafing, Inc. also once owned a paper in Savannah, Georgia, Creative Loafing Savannah, which later became Connect Savannah.

In 2000, founders Deborah and Elton Eason sold their shares to a group of investors led by their son Ben Eason. Eason, who owned the Weekly Planet newspapers, merged these papers into Creative Loafing. Cox Enterprises also bought a 25% share in Creative Loafing, Inc. as part of the deal. This partnership went sour in 2004 after the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, also owned by Cox, launched its own entertainment newsweekly with a similar format to Creative Loafing. Accusing Cox of underhanded dealing, Creative Loafing, Inc bought back the shares in 2004.