Falls Church News Press

Mondo Times editors    Boulder Colorado USA

Posted at 5:25pm on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

Falls Church News-Press Owner Nicholas Benton Confirms He Won Bid To Keep Washington Blade Alive; Nation's Oldest Gay Paper Shuttered Without Benton's Knowledge, the News-Press announced on November 17, 2009:

In response to media inquiries and an apparent information blackout by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), Nicholas F. Benton, owner of the Falls Church News-Press, a Washington, D.C.-area weekly, confirmed today that his corporation, Benton Communications, Inc., had won a bid from parties that included the SBA in September to obtain the assets of the Washington Blade from its bankrupt parent company for purposes of a seamless perpetuation of the nation's oldest gay community newspaper. The Blade was closed without Benton's advanced knowledge on Monday.

"Everything was in place, although moving slowly, to make the seamless transition we hoped for," Benton said. But I remain unaware of what happened, and as a result of Monday's events, the Blade is gone after 40 years of publication, its employees are out of work, and the nation's and region's LGBT community has been stripped of an invaluable institution."