Former 'Blade' Owners Sue Window Media

By: Mark Fitzgerald Gay newspaper chain Window Media has stopped some payments on its purchase of the New York and Washington Blade papers and is seeking a $428,350 "adjustment" of the price it agreed to pay in May of last year, according to a lawsuit filed by two former owners of the papers.

Don Michaels and James Lamont claim in a lawsuit in District of Columbia Superior Court that Window's Washington Blade Inc. unit is violating the sales agreement for the Washington Blade and the New York Blade. They and a third majority owner, Lisa Keen, were to split most of a $1.9-million cash payment.

Window co-founder William Waybourn sent E&P a statement that read, in part: "The suit does not seek to reverse the sale, just that those individuals be paid earlier than the agreements would otherwise require. ... These issues, along with substantial monies we claim are due us by the sellers, are standard in a transaction this size, and all parties expect them to be resolved amicably." Michaels and Lamont could not be reached.