Reported to be closing, independent Winsted Citizen finds buyer at the last minute

WINSTED — It’s been quite the rollercoaster ride for the fledgling Winsted Citizen, but Thanksgiving weekend brought news that fans of the independent community newspaper can be thankful for. 

After its editor, Andy Thibault, had indicated that the monthly paper would cease publication, an announcement was quickly made that it had actually been bought out by a much larger media company.

Jedd Gould, a board member and spokesperson for Connecticut News Consortium Inc., which created the Winsted Citizen in January, announced Wednesday, Nov. 22, that the Citizen had been acquired by American Business Media (ABM) of Simsbury. The consortium said in a statement issued last Wednesday that it never intended to close the paper permanently, but was seeking to change the current business model.

“We’re delighted to turn this project over to someone who shares our vision, and has the media infrastructure to support and grow it,” Gould said. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition was effective immediately.

ABM publishes seven magazines across the country as well as numerous email newsletters, and produces more than two dozen conferences at venues from Mohegan Sun to Los Angeles. Thibault referred inquiries to ABM.

ABM’s publisher and CEO, Vincent Valvo, himself a former business journalist, said in a statement that he believes “in the power and the mission of community journalism,” has been “cheering on the creation of the Winsted Citizen since the first of the year,” and is “delighted to be able to ensure that it will have a strong future.” He also expects the Citizen will sharpen its focus on Litchfield County, while “adding stronger online and social media offerings, community events, and articles that dig deeply into the fabric of the region and its people.”

In response to questions from The Lakeville Journal, Valvo said in an email that ABM “acquired all of the assets of the Citizen — name, trademarks, customer lists, etc. We did not acquire the liabilities of the publication, which remain with the Consortium.” Valvo added that there will be no layoffs and no changes to the Winsted Citizen’s editorial production. Founding publisher and editor Thibault will continue as a contributing editor, though Valvo said he has not yet decided how many other staff members will be retained.

The Citizen operated out of a very small Winsted office whose lease expired more than a month ago. Most employees and contributors worked remotely. Valvo said ABM does not intend to renew the lease but has ample space and resources at its Simsbury headquarters half an hour east of Winsted.

Valvo indicated that he would like to see the Citizen evolve into more of a multimedia platform “providing news and information via multiple channels” with “a new website, more robust social media outreach, email newsletters and print publications.”

“We are working with the people whose efforts made the Citizen real for the past few months, and adding the expertise of our national media company staff to broaden and refine what comes next in this project,” Valvo said.

The Citizen was initially backed by legendary lawyer, consumer advocate and Winsted native Ralph Nader, who has insisted Winsted has been a “news vacuum” since the closing of The Lakeville Journal-owned Winsted Journal in 2017. The rollout event for the Citizen was held in Nader’s National Museum of Tort Law, a shrine to lawsuits that Nader opened in a former Main Street bank building eight years ago.

After Nader’s initial funding expired in February, the paper was placed under the management of the nonprofit News Consortium. The paper has run deficits ever since. The deal to acquire the Citizen came together over the Thanksgiving holiday, Valvo said.

“We beat the Grim Reaper every month for most of the year,” Thibault said earlier in a staff memo leaked to the Hartford Business Journal. Thibault characterized the Citizen’s deficits at that time as “untenable.”

“We haven’t had a chance yet to hear everyone’s voices,” Valvo told The Journal. “But we are experienced, capable and thoughtful enough to move quickly and competently to the next stage of what a great community publication can be.”