Representatives of the Herald-Tribune Media Group and New York Times
Company have contacted AAN to clarify the licensing agreement between
their company and Creative Loafing, Inc.
Our story on Dec. 15 stated that the
Sarasota Herald-Tribune had "acquired" the brand
Creative Loafing Sarasota and would use the
name on its local entertainment guide and soon-to-be-launched mobile app.
Company reps made clear that they
are
licensing the brand for
one-year, and have not purchased
it. Further, the forthcoming mobile app will not carry the Creative
Loafing name, but will be branded under the name of their existing
entertainment mag,
Ticket.
It's not entirely clear how the Creative Loafing brand will be integrated
into the
Ticket publication, but in an email, the New York Times
Co.'s director of public relations Abbe Serphos said, "the
Creative
Loafing Sarasota brand will be used in combination with
Ticket
in a street edition only, for the purpose of introducing a more
comprehensive entertainment guide to Creative Loafing’s readers in
Sarasota."
When asked whether the revamped
Ticket would include editorial
content beyond entertainment coverage -- specifically, political coverage
-- Herald-Tribune director of marketing & customer engagement James Holmes
told us that decisions about editorial content were still being made.
Another clarification: Creative Loafing,
not
the Herald-Tribune, shuttered the Sarasota alt-weekly and laid off six
employees. The lede of
the Dec. 15 story gave the inaccurate impression
that the Herald-Tribune was responsible for taking those actions, and AAN
sincerely regrets the mistake.
