Lawsuit Settled
Metro Weekly co-publisher discusses deal with Post-Newsweek
This week, Sean Bugg, president of Jansi LLC, publisher of Metro Weekly, confirmed that Jansi, along with Isosceles Publishing Inc. and Randy Shulman, reached a settlement agreement with Post-Newsweek Media Inc. In the suit, Shulman is named as president of Isosceles, Metro Weekly‘s former publishing company. Bugg and Shulman are co-publishers of Metro Weekly.
The settlement amount listed in the April 28 document, shared by Bugg, is $60,565, to be paid in 19 installments. An initial $30,000 payment was made to Post-Newsweek on June 6.
”I’m pretty pleased with the outcome,” says Bugg. ”With this taken care of, we’re really able to focus on our employees and our community. I’m very happy with this.”
John Karr, of Karr & Allison PC, who represented Bugg and Jansi in the matter, says the settlement surpassed his expectations.
”When I was hired last summer, there was a judgment of $85,000 remaining against Isosceles,” he explains. ”Then [Post-Newsweek Media] filed a new suit against Jansi and Shulman to collect the $85,000, and a second for fraud, $1 million. We settled the case for $60,000.”
The remaining judgment – voided by the settlement – was the result of costs incurred with Post-Newsweek’s Comprint Printing entity, which printed Metro Weekly for a period when the magazine was published by Isosceles.
Bugg, speaking on behalf of himself and Shulman, says he is pleased both with the settlement figure, as well as simply having the matter resolved.
”Given what the lawsuit was seeking, I’m pretty happy with this particular number,” he says. ”I think the final settlement says a lot about the initial claim.
”We have the same challenges as any other small business or media business in D.C., though [the suit] never really had an impact on the strength of the business. One of the goals of Jansi was to form a strong media company to serve the LGBT community. We’ve done that and we’ll continue to do that. We’re extremely fortunate to work with a community that supports us.”
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