Sources within The Malibu Surfside News confirmed the three-year-old weekly tabloid-style newspaper has closed its Malibu offices off Kanan Dume Road as of Monday, June 27, but Managing Editor Joe Coughlin told The Malibu Times rumors that the paper is closing up shop are “not true at all.”
Coughlin, in a phone interview from his office in Chicago, said the newspaper “is still going to operate with people on the ground in Malibu.”
The Malibu Surfside News has been operated by Chicago-based newspaper conglomerate 22nd Century Media since late October, 2013.
In June of that year, longtime publisher and editor Anne Soble fell ill and the paper stopped publishing for some months, until Chicago media owner Jack Ryan of 22nd Century Media purchased publishing rights.
While contact information for the Malibu office was still available on 22ndcenturymedia.com as of Tuesday, June 28, the phone line to the office was no longer active.
“We’re not closing — Malibu Surfside is still going to operate out of Malibu,” Coughlin said. “We did do some reorganization, but I won’t comment on personnel issues.”
Though Coughlin said the paper is “looking to hire new reporters,” it has also been confirmed the newspaper’s Malibu-based editor Chris Bashaw is no longer with the paper.
An advertisement on journalismjobs.com describes the Surfside seeking a freelance staffer to cover local government, school board, community events and high school athletics, among other topics.
Coughlin mentioned the newspaper’s reorganization would not change the print schedule, which currently publishes weekly on Wednesdays.