The Nashville Scene is up for sale

The Nashville Scene, the city’s longtime alt-weekly, is for sale, said Vic Gatto, chairman of the publication’s owner SouthComm.

Putting the publication up for sale culminates a busy last year for Southcomm. CEO Chris Ferrell left his position in November and the company cut staff in November, including Scene editor Steve Cavendish. In the last year, SouthComm has sold or is in the process of selling alt-weeklies in Atlanta, Washington D.C., Cincinnati, and Kansas City and Tampa.

“The choice is hire a new CEO and start building and competing against The Tennessean, and sell it and let the new buyer build their own team and strategy,” Gatto said. “We are looking at both right now.”

SouthComm generally has two kinds of publications under its umbrella – alternative daily and weekly publications, like the Scene, and business-to-business publications that were acquired when the company purchased Wisconsin-based Cygnus Business Media three years ago.

Nationally, alt-weeklies are facing a challenging revenue model. The New York-based Village Voice announced in August it would end its print publication and in July, the City Paper in Baltimore said it would close.

“The alt-weeklies are much more consumer focused and sensitive to the economy,” Gatto said. “The B2B is more stable but doesn’t grow as fast or as big. In good economies like we have today, the Scene is a great property. In 2009, it was harder."

SouthComm is talking to multiple potential buyers, including local groups. SouthComm owns about 35 publications, including nFocus and the Nashville Post, and each are eligible for sale, Gatto said.

Gatto’s investment firm Solidus, founded by Townes Duncan, is SouthComm’s largest shareholder. Gatto declined to offer details on prices being discussed but said Solidus investors are balancing their interest in making a return and their willingness to hold onto their stake in the company.

“The fund is 16 years old,” Gatto said. “The investors in Solidus are interested to know when they can get a return on the investment. They don’t want to sell it for any price either.”

The print media landscape has been under pressure for several years, prompting cuts and strategy changes at publications nationally. While print media may not be a strong growth business, it is still “a good business," Gatto said.

“People have predicted print is going to die next year for the past 25 years,” Gatto said. “People still rely on the Scene or The Tennessean to find out what is going on around Nashville.”

Gatto confirmed that the Scene's printing contract with Kentucky-based Publishers Press is up this year. Renegotiating that deal is likely to add to costs, Gatto said.

Former Nashville Scene editor Steve Cavendish said that companies wishing to be in the publishing business these days must be “willing to fight.”

Cavendish said his hope is that the Scene and its sister publications in Nashville find themselves in the hands of an owner willing to invest in the products. He said he hadn’t received a new computer in six years, and several staffers used personal computers to do their work. The Nashville publications need to go to a “civic-minded buyer,” Cavendish said, adding it will take someone who loves the Scene and Nashville to make the business work.

“SouthComm has taken out costs that must be replaced in order for these publications to be viable for the long term,” Cavendish said. “No buyer would look at these properties and say, ‘Oh, I can operate this exactly the way they are operating it.’

Reach Jamie McGee at 615-259-8071 and on Twitter @JamieMcGee_. Reach Nate Rau at 615-259-8094 and on Twitter @tnnaterau.