Gannett is suing Current Newspapers for more than $180,000 in unpaid printing bills, reports Washingtonian, which added that the suit, “which was filed in September in DC Superior Court, claims that the company hasn’t paid its printing bills since January 2016.
“Gannett signed a contract with Current Newspapers in December 2014 to provide the publisher, which distributes five free weekly community newspapers in Northwest Washington, with “printing services on credit.” The Current‘s tab ballooned to as much as $264,754 in August 2015, according to court records. But since early 2016, the suit says, the company has had trouble paying down its debt. Gannett no longer prints the paper; the company closed its Springfield plant, which printed USA Today along with clients of its publishing-services division, at the end of 2015.
“In a letter responding to Gannett, the Current‘s publisher, Davis Kennedy, wrote that the partial payment is evidence that “it is clear we have substantially reduced the amount owed since we were no longer able to use Gannett to print us.” But Kennedy’s letter also reveals other troubles the Current‘s been facing recently. The publication’s advertising director and other sales staff left the company in early 2016, an exodus Kennedy attributes for a severe drop-off in advertising revenues that left the Current unable to pay its bills or make back payments. Kennedy also writes that the Current cannot afford to hire lawyers to represent it in defending against Gannett’s lawsuit; the case, if it proceeds, will be conducted by a hearing commissioner rather than a judge and jury.
“But Kennedy’s letter also claims that the Current is very slowly clawing its way back to financial health.”
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