(No caption)
The owners of Detroit Metro Times have bought out the minority interest of John Badanjek, the founder of Real Detroit Weekly, the publication which merged with the Metro Times in 2014, Crain's Detroit Business reports.
Badanjek was named publisher of Metro Times last year.
Chris Keating, regional publisher for Metro Times' parent company Euclid Media Group of Cleveland tells Bill Shea of Crain's in an email: "As majority owner, Euclid Media Group exercised our option to buy out our minority partner. There was absolutely nothing negative behind the decision; rather, we made a business decision for Metro Times moving forward."
Badanjek, 45, founded Royal Oak-based Real Detroit Weekly in 1999, which was heavy on ads and lighter on news. After the merger, Badanjek became resident of an events unit within the new company, Metro Times LLC and had a minority stake in the merger, Crain's reports.
He told Crain's it was amicable split, but noted: "When the merger occurred, it never seemed like a real merger between the publications. I never thought we saw eye to eye on what the publication should be."
