West Hollywood, California (October 11, 2007) - In an indication of how very competitive the local throw-away newspaper business has become, the Westside Chronicle, a weekly covering the Westside of Los Angeles, including West Hollywood, folded in early September after a year and a half run. Publisher Vipin Sahgal, whose newspaper had been in and out of court over suits brought by a rival paper in Beverly Hills, gave up printing after a period of editorial turmoil.
WeHoNews learned that the paper had not gone to print on Sunday morning, September 9, when a search along Santa Monica Boulevard failed to turn up any copies.
According to Mr. Sahgal the following day, the paper had been put on hiatus. “We are only taking a couple weeks off to revamp the editorial staff,” he said.
He blamed his inability to find a managing editor “who knows how to write a 500 word news story,” for the stop. Within the week, though, the newspaper’s telephone was shut off and Miracle Mile offices closed.
Mr. Sahgal could not be reached for comment.
The staff turmoil erupted in late June when one editor, Andrea Simpson, walked off the job during final editing of an issue. Her replacement, selected after a two-week search, left after only one week on the job.
Already dogged by a lawsuit brought by the Beverly Hills Courier accusing the Mr. Sahgal and several on his staff, for the most part former Courier employees he took away from the paper to form the Chronicle, of pilfering its "trade secrets."
The Courier had employed Mr. Sahgal as a consultant until just prior to his starting the Chronicle. The trade secrets in question? The Courier’s advertisers’ contact information.
Mr. Sahgal retaliated with a counter-suit charging that the Courier had engaged in a conspiracy to drive it out of business through unfair competition, interference and slander (the Courier’s publisher, Clifton S. Smith Jr., allegedly called Mr. Sahgal a “con man”).
The temporary restraining order (TRO) the Courier sought failed, with one of the Chronicle’s legal writers snarkily suggesting to another media organization that information contained in a newspaper could hardly be considered anyone’s secret. Both suits were to be heard in 2008.
Mr. Sahgal, now 67, came to the U.S. in his 20s and quickly found work in management consulting, becoming an expert in mergers and acquisitions.
He fell into hot water with the federal government’s Securities and Exchange Commission in the late 1980s over a fictitious press release announcing a firm offer for a firm where there was none.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the TRO was caused by the devastation visited on them when Mr. Sahgal left the Beverly Hills Courier.
Apparently, he took away with him seven important staffers, including the general manager, art and design coordinator, account executive, graphics operator, associate editor, sales manager and finally, his son, the youth and sports editor.
In his lawsuit against the venerable Beverly Hills paper, Mr. Sahgal accused the Courier of threatening sub-contractors, employees and advertisers in what he calls a conspiracy to ruin his newspaper.
The Chronicle’s publisher claimed he never wanted to build a newspaper, anyway, but simply tried to purchase one already operating.
“Mind you,” he told WeHoNews in March of this year, “we were going to buy a newspaper, not begin one. Two weeks before we closed escrow the paper we were going to buy was slapped with a lawsuit because of some questionable articles they ran.”
Mr. Saghal suddenly faced an office full of computer and telecommunications equipment, not to mention an already hired staff, and a real dilemma.
“Do we close up shop and take a major loss? Or do we start a new newspaper? Everyone and their grandmother told me I was a fool to start a paper from scratch,” he said.
The suits are still on the dockets and schedule for trial next year, according Mr. Smith Jr., with his to be heard in June 2008.
The Westside Chronicle distributed 60,000 copies throughout Bel-Air, Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Century City, Santa Monica, West Hollywood, West Los Angeles and Westwood.
The Chronicle and WeHoNews had cooperated editorially to cover West Hollywood for most of its 75 issue run.
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