Hysteria about Pulitzer sad and shameful
Guest Editorial

By Dean Bonzani, Flagstaff Resident

Flagstaff Rant Party:

Since when are demonizing local business people, distorting the truth, and fear mongering progressive ideas? 

Your hysteria over the purchase of Flag Live! and Mountain Living magazine by Pulitzer Publishing is sad and shameful. You know next to nothing about the entire situation, yet you pontificate on the issue, holding up what is, and shall remain, a basically locally written publication as if it's some sort of long arm of the Secret Fourth Dimensional Lizard People Conspiratorial Media Conglomerate, when it's really only a <gasp> arts and entertainment rag. That's right people: it's just a listing of events with some hopefully entertaining and occasionally enlightening editorial thrown in. That's it. The sky is not falling. Flag Live! is not a source of news, but a source of information concerning where to go to drink beer and see bands, take in a movie, or hear a symphony, etc. Do you folks really need targets so badly, in order to make your own efforts seem more grand? Your publication more cutting edge or truthful?

If you're interested in the truth, or want to bother with trifles like facts, here's some trivia for you. Mountain Living began as a local business spotlight, put out by a retired gentleman by the name of Gordon, who wanted something to do and a source of extra income. It was quaint, neighborly, and low key. He sold it to Steve Saville, who wanted to move to Flagstaff and raise a child with his lovely wife, building the magazine into an entity to provide the income to do this. It was damned hard. The pay was non-existent and the work was enormous. I know, because I was there from the beginning, building my own business and advertising with Steve's magazine. 

He built Mountain Living into the well-connected, well-written, business- and non-profit organization-focused publication that it is today. 

Flag Live! was a joint effort between Steve and Brian Johnson, who conceptualized much of the original format of the paper. Brian's hiring of anybody who could lift a pen is now legend.  Much money was spent. Not enough money was made.  

Enter Mary Sojourner.

Mary was given full spew under the Johnson administration, then when her vitriol degenerated into name calling, and large advertising accounts walked out on a magazine that could barely hold its financial head above water, executive decisions were made, and she was issued her walking papers. Obviously, she's still pissed off about the whole affair, and continues to flap her dirty laundry as if it's the Flag of the Revolution. Let's call a spade a spade, shall we?

And yes, the Daily Sun actually said some rotten things aimed at Flagstaff Live! in a direct attack on its publisher, Steve Saville. Phone calls were made, slander was denied. Flare was undoubtedly meant to rival Flag Live! - any clever monkey could figure that one out, Gretchen. Keeping good writers away from the competition, and walking the ones who scare off large contributors to your sole source of income (from which writers' paychecks are derived) is just smart business sense, which, incidentally, is precisely what Flagstaff Tea Party will need to persist in a world of overhead and production costs.

Mountain Living, Ink never made anyone rich. Its publications have always been locally produced, locally written (with the exceptions of Hightower and Newsquirks) works, with all the politics that go with such things. They will continue to be just that, only now its employees will get medical and financial benefits, and Steve and Jill Saville can sleep at night knowing that they can make their mortgage payments.  

I hope I've set the record straight on this matter.

Dean Bonzani is the president of Inner Sanctum, Inc., the owner of Zani Futons and Frames and a contributing writer to Flagstaff Live!

Editor's note: The preceding editorialwas written in response to an essay I wrote as well as letters to the editor by Gretchen Hornberger and Mary Sojourner, all of which were published in the September issue of Flagstaff Tea Party.  Readers who did not see the September issue can click here to check it out.

It was not my intention to demonize any local business people. Most of my criticism was directed at Pulitzer and the corporate domination of the media that Pulitzer represents. My only real criticism of Steve Saville had to do with his decision to sell his publications to Pulitzer. This may have been a financially sound move on Saville's part. However, I believe letting Pulitzer control so much of Flagstaff's media scene has the potential to diminish Flagstaff's character, limit the variety of local voices that are heard, and undermine the democratic process. And as more advertising dollars are diverted to Pulitzer's headquarters in St. Louis, the local economy is further impoverished.

Dan Frazier, Editor