A Hostile Takeover in West Marin?

Things are getting uglier – if that is possible – in the world of Community Journalism in West Marin.

On Monday, the West Marin Citizen published a “Special Edition” that accused the Marin Media Institute – which incase you haven’t heard is the new publisher of the Point Reyes Light – of attempting a “hostile takeover” of the Citizen.

In a page-one editorial in the four-page edition, the Citizen’s publisher, Joel Hack, asserted that the Marin Media Institute – which has applied for 501c3 non-profit status – have used “community money to launch a hostile takeover” of the Citizen. Hack outlined what he says is his own personal Chapter 13 bankruptcy, which was filed on February 21 in federal bankruptcy court, and states that the bankruptcy involves the repayment of his own personal taxes which were incurred in the years before he started the West Marin Citizen.

Included in the Special Edition are copies of an April 14 letter to the bankruptcy trustee from Doulas P. Ferguson, the attorney for the Marin Media Institute. The letter offers a payment of $50,000 to the West Marin Citizen of which $40,000 would go to Hack and $10,000 would go toward severance pay for several key employees, including the Citizen’s editor, Jim Kravets. Also included in the letter from Ferguson are details from the merger attempt that took place in the months before Hack’s bankruptcy.

The West Marin Report attempted to get statements from the Light’s owners in time for the Wednesday edition of the news program – but the Marin Media Institute’s Corey Goodman is traveling and could not be reached until Thursday.

We did have some audio from an interview done in late May, and you can hear Goodman in his own words by clicking here. 

We’ll cover the matter in-depth on the Friday edition of the West Marin Report, which airs locally on KWMR Community Radio, or online any time at www.kwmr.org/news .