The passel with the hassle? 
I hope we are not where the pellet with the poison is
Something Awful.
Daily Kos
Huffington Post
Neither of those places is only a message board, nor are either of them a primarily message board with once a week column postings.
On Daily Kos, 95% of the content is generated by the members, and they don’t sell any product other than t-shirts and mugs like here (I think, I don’t know that for sure.) All of their revenue comes from advertising, which was the main point.
See, that’s a good point. And that’s the sort of direction this site could take if the new management were to decide to make it profitable. Most of the content could be provided by us, but there could be daily editorials by Ed. (It’s probably time to drop the Cecil nonsense.) Properly done, it could rival the Daily Kos. And then advertising revenues would be much higher because of many more click-throughs.
Just, the day I found that out, I was kinda, it was a bummer. So, Kappa owns GAMES now, and Kappa doesn’t run Playboy? [Just so I got it all right.]
Next you are going to tell me that a cigarette company makes Oreos.
Oh. They do? Really?
Does that mean I can get a patch for it?
Right on! With proper management, the SDMB has the potential to make tens of dollars a year!
Hey gang.
Living near Midtown Atlanta has its perks.
Page 13 of the Atlanta Creative Loafing for August 26-Sept 1 has to say on the matter. The article entitled “Who Will Control CL?”
The 5 or so paragraph article was written before the auction, but it saw the writing on the wall, and says the following about Atalyaya:::
**
If Atalaya wins, it will own the country’s second-largest alt-weekly chain, which it sought for the better part of a year. Atalaya has indicated that it intends to operate and reinvest in the chain.**
A URL is then given that points at the auction results. [Which we already know.]
The auction ended 48 hours after the deadline for this issue.
More of the same, but at least it looks good from here.
Your ignorance of business is startling.
With all due respect, you clearly don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. You certainly don’t have any idea how VCs operate (esp in takeover mod); you don’t understand the concept of restructing; and your idea of the relative value of the Dope to the rest of CL’s assets is wildly out of line with reality.
In short, you should not *speculate *on things you know nothing about.
I find that to be either sad or…well, something else.
…but this above is even sadder, or even more something else.
Warning: Appeal to my own authority coming!
Frankly, I think I might be the only one here (other than maybe Ed) with the experience and knowledge base to really opine, here. I speak as someone who at least spoke to a few VCs I know about getting into the bidding for CL largely because that would have been a hoot. But in the end decided not to pursue it.
So, bona fides at least sort of established I speak ex cathedra:
The SDMB is a trivial player in the ongoing saga of Creative Loafing. The money will come from the elbow room that new management will have to operate. Both in terms of advertising and product development the potential for larger alt-weeklies in major cities is enormous. It must be partnered with an online presence but the online presence alone will not be sustainable at a rate of profit sufficient to justify the expense of maintaining a fully staffed newsroom. Therefore the hard copy edition will have to carry the freight for that sort of reporting. How new management accomplishes this will be the single most important factor in their ongoing success.
I’m afraid that I, too, have no knowledge of, or interest in the Straight Dope. I came on board a few years ago because of the message board, and the whole Cecil thing just passes me by; it rather smacks of an in-joke that I’m not party to. I’m very sorry.
I think that sounds very encouraging, actually. Thanks for posting it. 
I thought about it after, I think the article was written by someone in Atlanta
(Mara Shalhoup), on the Atlanta CL staff. So I’m not sure how much authority she has.
A majority of the article was on the backstory of how Eason got to the point where he was at Auction. The other substantial part was on the auction itself, and how the press time came before the end of the auction. However, the quote is as it was in the article, assuming no typos from me.
Bankruptcy Judge Caryl E. Delano opened the equity auction with CLI’s bid. Tyler Brown, representing Atalaya, asked the judge if bids needed to be entered in increments of $50,000, to which Delano replied they did. People who might have been prepared for a game of one-upmanship were then disappointed, as Brown submitted Atalaya’s bid of $5 million in cash.
CLI’s lawyers asked for a brief recess.
When the recess ended and Delano returned to the bench, CLI’s lawyers asked her to close the auction. They wanted to argue that Atalaya’s bid might have been the “highest,” but it wasn’t necessarily the “best.” If Atalaya gained control of the company, they said, there was no guarantee that the hedge fund wouldn’t split the company into pieces and sell off the papers.
“What is in the best interest of the company going forward?” asked Mariaelena Gayo-Guitian. “For the creditors, the employees, for public policy?”
Bart Houston, another CLI lawyer, said it was important that the judge consider the employees and the role newspapers play in communities.
But Delano, who said during the trial that she’s read Creative Loafing for years, repeatedly stated that it would be hard to sway her with such a position. She tried to find case law that touched on CLI’s “highest and best” argument, she said, but came up empty-handed.
“I’m at a loss to what I can possibly hear to change my mind that a $5 million cash offer is the highest and best offer,” the judge said.
When the judge ruled Atalaya’s bid was the “highest and best,” Eason sat silently, blinked several times, and then rocked back and forth in his chair. The drama ended at that moment, but nearly an hour of administrative minutiae followed.
Atalaya told the court that it didn’t intend to close any of the papers; the plan is to reinvest in them. Atalaya has indicated that Creative Loafing’s new board will be manned by some impressive names in national journalism, including ex-L.A. Times editor Jim O’Shea. O’Shea was fired from the Times after he resisted the publisher’s demands to cut the editorial staff. By bringing him on, Atalaya could be adding substance to its promise to reinvest in CLI’s six papers.
I don’t think you should. It is just that the SDMB has taken a life of its own and as it often happens on teh internets, the mass is self sufficient and with little interest in what comes from above. I would take it as a sign of health.
I understand what you are saying about it being a shame that the SD as a point of origin is getting out of sight, but that is only the nature of the beast. Not too different from how you should feel about kids leaving home and finding their own way. One feels a bit sad in a selfish way but should know that it is for the best.
Ok, people have said that the SDMB is a money looser. How does it loose money exactly?
I’m picturing a server plugged into a 240volt wall outlet sitting in the corner of an office somewhere. Bought and paid for I’m assuming and requiring little maintenance…?
leander: meet the Internet message boards, Internet message boards: meet leander.