Vancouver-based alt weekly The Georgia Straight has a new owner, and it intends to bring the publication back to its glory days.

Overstory Media Group, which already operates many community and culture publications across Canada, has acquired the 55-year-old weekly newspaper, known for its coverage of Vancouver-area news, entertainment and culture.

“The Georgia Straight is a household name across the Lower Mainland. I grew up with it being a pioneer of independent thinking, and a passionate supporter of the arts,” said Farhan Mohamed, Overstory’s co-founder and CEO. “At its best, The Straight captured and explored the beating heart of Vancouver’s culture – and became part of it. We are committed to bringing that back.”

The acquisition is meant to reinforce Overstory’s commitment to support local communities with “high-quality, thought-provoking storytelling that inspires dialogue and action.”

“The Straight is synonymous with West Coast culture and lifestyles, and has always been deeply committed to community news coverage,” Mohamed said. “No other publication knows more about Vancouver than the Straight does.”

Mohamed added that the company would seek feedback from readers, partners and the community to help it find the best way to “redefine and rebuild the publication that’s lost its way over the past several years.”

The acquisition is effective immediately. The purchase price was not disclosed.

Though independent for much of its existence, The Georgia Straight was acquired by Media Central in February 2020, just months after the company closed on the transaction of Toronto alt weekly Now. Media Central’s then-CEO Brian Kalish told MiC at the time that the acquisitions were part of a plan to consolidate “hundreds” of alternative publications as a way to reach a valuable audience in a more efficient way.

However, the pandemic began shortly after the Georgia Straight acquisition, and Media Central was hit hard financially, as were other media companies as advertisers shifted their budgets.

Among the changes Media Central instituted as a response to its new financial challenges were to combine both publications’ editorial departments with sales and marketing teams in June 2020, eliminating the traditional separation most outlets maintain to ensure journalistic independence. Media Central also eliminated coverage of venues and arts – major areas of coverage for any alt-weekly – and instead shifted focus to health, education, finance and esports.

Though the Now sale was an all-cash transaction, Media Central issued debentures to raise capital for the Georgia Straight acquisition. In early March, Media Central said it was in default with its debt and was seeking to negotiate with the debenture holders in the amount of roughly $1 million. By the end of the month, the company said it was no longer able to meet its financial obligations and filed for bankruptcy.

At the time of the bankruptcy filing, Media Central said that both Georgia Straight and Now, as subsidiaries of the business, would continue to operate as usual, though debt holders sought to sell the publications to recoup some of the debt.

However, since the spring, former and current staff at both newspapers have been open about the financial struggles they had been seeing first hand. This includes being owed back pay, leading many staff to leave or continue their coverage without pay. While Georgia Straight has maintained a near-regular publishing schedule, Now began publishing roughly every month earlier this year. After its August issue was released, Now acting editor Radheyan Simonpillai said it would likely be the last issue for some time, though it has continued to publish online.

In announcing the Georgia Straight transaction Tuesday afternoon, Overstory said its “first action” would be to reinstate Georgia Straight’s arts and culture focus, as well as enhance coverage of Vancouver-area events, entertainment, music, food and news. The company also says it is hiring; roles currently posted on its job board include arts editor, music editor and food writer.

Overstory also told MiC in a statement that, like its other community publications, The Straight’s editorial, sales, and marketing departments are once again separate.

“While these separate departments all need to work together and communicate as a team, merging them is not a good editorial policy,” the statement said.

Prior to the pandemic, Georgia Straight had 2.7 million monthly readers in its weekly print edition and 1.8 million online. However, the outlet had missed some print issues this summer amid its previous parent company’s financial struggles: it published only three issues in June and two in both July and August. It has yet to publish a print edition in September.

Vancouver-based Overstory owns several local and community news outlets, including Halifax’s The Coast, Victoria’s Capital Daily, Fraiser Valley Current, Burnaby Beacon and Calgary Citizen. It also has several interest-based outlets, such as Vancouver Tech Journal, Victoria Tech Journal, Tasting Victoria and Eat Tri-Cities.