FINAL COPY
GRAVEDIGGER
BY MIKE ZIGLER

So the Review-Journal’s parent company, Stephens Media Group, acquired Las Vegas’ lone independent alternative weekly newspaper early last month. The upside is that the Mercury died. The downside is Geoff Schumacher’s alt weekly career didn’t die with it.

In the same way John Kerry body snatched the Democratic Party, an ineffectual liberal body snatched CityLife. The paper already suggests it’ll soon mirror the failed Mercury publication, as Schumacher’s fingerprints are over the March 24 issue, his first.

Let’s begin with the numbers. CityLife averages 106,000 loyal readers per week; the Weekly 79,000 and the Mercury averaged 51,000. In the Mercury’s four-year existence, those rankings never changed — editor Schumacher’s pet project was always last, even with the Stephens Media financial backing.

Clearly aspiring for a successful product in the industry, Stephens Media realized it couldn’t do it with the Mercury. So they bought CityLife. Smart on their part, but what was Stephens Media’s next move? The company assigned the coach, who for four years couldn’t produce a winning season, top post while demoting Managing Editor Matt O’Brien.

Schumacher’s first whack at CityLife, a publication he managed once upon a time, is sprinkled with that lame, mundane feel that made the Mercury a weekly chore to review. Cover artwork was never a stronghold for the Mercury whereas CityLife’s veteran Photo Editor Bill Hughes always managed to create an enticing, eye-catching image, edition after edition. 

CL’s March 24 cover best suggests Schumacher’s influence is bleeding through the cubicles on Pama Lane. He picked the prettiest three colors from his Crayola eight-pack — red, yellow and blue — then settled on a font likely never before printed in a credible newspaper.

The “Our Opinion” column now belongs to Schumacher’s stale words, formerly front and center in the Mercury’s “Editor’s Note.” 

Schumacher’s arrival also led to a few farewells. Among the cuts was Saab Lofton. While Lofton’s column was riddled with quantum leaps and statements of lunacy, he did generate more response from readers than any other CL columnist.

Schumacher’s decisions even confused the paper’s most established liberals. “It’s unfortunate they released the only black columnist in the state of Nevada,” said former Arts & Entertainment Editor Jarret Keene, who was fired March 24 for workload reduction reasons.

It could be said the paper is moving in the right direction by discontinuing Lofton. After all, the paper’s median reader is 43 years old and 61 percent of all readers annually earn more than $50,000. Plus, more than 50,000 readers, nearly half of the paper’s weekly readership, fall within the 35- to 55-year-old age bracket. To me, that indicates a readership with opposite political leanings than the paper’s staff.

But CityLife will not shift in a conservative direction — or progressive for that matter. Based off his writings, Schumacher is a stubborn liberal whose words are as stimulating as a Thomas Kincaid painting. 

Schumacher had his chance with the Mercury. It’s dead and buried. CityLife is alive, but if the March 24 issue is any indication of things to come, CityLife’s number is next. Its only prayer is that Schumacher’s “interim” title is treated seriously. LW