FW Publishing and Nashville Scene Reporter File Public Records Lawsuit Against Gov. Lee to Release Documents from $3 Million McKinsey Contract

FW Publishing, the parent company of the Nashville Scene, and reporter Stephen Elliot filed a public records lawsuit against Governor Bill Lee after the state failed to provide reports for the state compiled by consulting group McKinsey and Company.

The suit, which names both Lee and Tennessee Department of Human Resources Commissioner Juan Williams as respondents, argues the journalist is entitled to the documents under the Tennessee Public Records Act.

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Nashville Scene Apologizes for Promoting New Years Event with No COVID Restrictions

A weekly Nashville magazine apologized to readers Monday after promoting a Fox News sponsored New Years Eve event that will not require guests to wear masks, present a negative COVID-19 test or show proof of vaccination to partake. 

“Due to a communication breakdown, a Nashville Scene marketing email went out this morning promoting a Fox News-sponsored event at Wildhorse Saloon requiring no proof of vaccination or negative COVID test. We regret this error and apologize to our readers. It won’t happen again,” Nashville Scene said on Twitter. 

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Real Estate Moguls Bill Freeman, Jimmy Webb Buy Nashville Scene and Nashville Post

Jimmy Webb, Bill Freeman

Multifamily real estate firm Freeman Webb Co. has entered the publishing business by buying the Nashville Post, the Nashville Scene and Nfocus. The Nashville Post made the announcement Friday after the deal with previous owner SouthComm, a holding company, closed. The sales price was not disclosed. SouthComm put the publications up for sale after a period of layoffs and other cutbacks, The Tennessean said. A month ago New York-based This purchase, first reported by the Nashville Post, comes a month CapStack Partners was negotiating to buy the publications. Former mayoral candidate Bill Freeman and business partner Jimmy Webb own the real estate company that has more than 450 workers. The media acquisition will add 35 more. The publications’ leadership team, with Publisher Amy Mularski and CFO Todd Patton, will stay, as will the editors of the Post, Scene and Nfocus. Freeman finished third in the 2015 election for Mayor of Nashville behind David Fox and eventual winner Megan Barry but decided not to run in May’s special election. “Jimmy Webb and I are thrilled to purchase the Post, the Nashville Scene and Nfocus, which are all publications that we’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading over the years,” said Freeman. “It is important to…

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Nashville Scene Confirms Tennessee Star Reporting: ‘Possible That The Tennessean Bought Into a Smear Campaign’ Claiming FBI Asking Questions About Tim Burchett

The Nashville Scene published a detailed 3,000 word article on Tuesday by former Metro Pulse reporter Cari Wade Gervin that eviscerates the credibility of the four sources upon which Tennessean reporters Dave Boucher and Joel Ebert relied to form the basis of their December 1 story, in which they reported that sources said the FBI was asking questions about Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett. The Tennessee Star reported on the story by Tennessean reporters Boucher and Ebert with great skepticism three days later on December 4. “Relying upon claims from an ex-wife with a criminal history, three anonymous sources, and two unproduced documents they claim to have seen but refuse to reveal, the Knoxville News Sentinel published a story written by two Nashville-based reporters on Friday, “Sources: FBI asks questions about Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett; mayor says ‘no truth to any of it’,” The Star reported, adding: Burchett, who is term-limited in his current job, is a candidate for the Republican nomination for the Second Congressional District in the election to replace retiring Rep. John “Jimmy” Duncan (R-TN-02), where he faces a hard fought battle against State Rep. Jimmy Matlock (R-Lenoir City). Friday’s article was written by Dave Boucher and Joel Ebert, two Nashville-based…

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Nashville Scene Makes Big Staff Reductions

The left-leaning alternative newsweekly Nashville Scene announced significant staff cuts Thursday. Top editor Steve Cavendish and arts editor Laura Hutson were among 25 percent of editorial staff losing positions. Alternative weeklies across the country are struggling, reported the Nashville Business Journal. The Nashville Scene is owned by SouthComm, a Nashville-based media company that owns a variety of alternative newspapers and other news sources across the U.S. Locally, SouthComm also owns the Nashville Post and Nfocus, which have also been affected by the cuts. “SouthComm is in the midst of a changing of a guard, at all levels of the organization,” said CFO Bob Mahoney. “This announcement is neither the first nor will it be the last.”

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Nashville’s Downtown Library ‘A Scary Mess,’ Mirrors National Trends Aimed At Helping Homeless

Public libraries have long wrestled with how to address homeless people who walk through the door. What’s changed in recent years is that some libraries have started to pro-actively welcome the homeless and set up programs to try to help them. Nashville, with a growing homeless population, is on the cutting edge of this approach and has drawn national attention for its efforts at the downtown library on Church Street. But critics say that while well-intentioned, reaching out to the homeless can distract from a library’s main mission and make it a less welcoming place for the general public. “The Downtown Library is a Scary Mess” was the title of an article  in the Nashville Scene in August 2016. Writer Betsy Phillips described encountering bad smells, out-of-order toilets, dirty laundry on restroom sinks, and men darting in and out of doorways by a reading room making her feel unsafe. “There’s not a good way to talk about this without sounding like you’re being mean to homeless people,” Phillips wrote. But talk about it we must, she said. “This is a library. A library. If there is any place in town where you should not be afraid to walk into a…

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