Landmark Hotel’s Bank Fails

Published by Waldo Jaquith on May 1, 2009 in Business and Development. 11 Comments

The FDIC has seized Georgia’s Silverton Bank, Matt Andrejszak writes for Marketwatch, which is notable here because they’re the bank financing the Landmark Hotel. How will this effect the hotel? Well, it’s not like it could get any worse than remaining as-is. Thanks to Bob for the tip.

By the way, if you’re curious about how the FDIC actually seizes a bank, I highly recommend listening to the recent This American Life episode about this very topic. It’s actually pretty bad-ass. At 6:00 PM on a Friday, dozens of covert agents converge on the unsuspecting bank simultaneously, lock it down, and spend the weekend doing a full accounting of its assets, merging those assets with those of another bank in the area, and opening it again for business under its new name on Monday. They try to do that on a three-day weekend (this Monday, for instance, is a bank holiday), but it’s still a pretty amazing accomplishment.

Regal Seminole 4 to get 5 More Screens, Stadium Seating

Published by Waldo Jaquith on May 1, 2009 in Business and Entertainment. 18 Comments

Every media outlet in town is reporting that Regal Seminole 4 behind KMart is becoming a nine-screen stadium-seating behemoth. They’ll have digital projectors, retractable armrests for seat-sharing, and the ability to project live broadcasts. The plans are on display in the theater’s lobby. There’s no word on when the project is scheduled for completion.

The demise of the Terrace Triple left the Seminole 4 as the skeeziest theater in town. Looks like they’re about to become the best theater in town. I see a movie in the theater about once annually; one of these years, I’ll make it the Regal Seminole 9.

More Dumps Found on Batesville Property

Published by Waldo Jaquith on April 29, 2009 in General News. 25 Comments

Albemarle is investigating two more dumps on the Chiles family property in Batesville, Brandon Shulleeta reports in today’s Daily Progress. Henry Chiles has already been cited for a large illegal dump on his property, but eagle-eyed cvillenews.com readers noted that it wasn’t the only dump visible on Google Maps, where one more presumed dump can be spotted. The DEQ says that this dump is the worst in the area in recent history. Mr. Chiles says that he’ll clean it up, and maintains that he didn’t know anything about the waste until the county informed him.

News Virginian Rethinks Internet Strategy

Published by Waldo Jaquith on April 27, 2009 in Business and Meta News. 9 Comments

The Waynesboro News Virginian has started doing something clever, Lindsay Barnes writes for The Hook—they’re saving their best stories for their print publication. Though a few years ago it made sense for a publication to drive traffic to its website, plummeting online advertising revenues, along with circulation rates for print publications, have made it a better idea for a publication to use its website to promote its print publication. In today’s paper, they promote a story about “sexually explicit lyrics” contained within a song played at a middle school dance, cutting off the story after the fourth paragraph and encouraging readers to “pick up The News Virginian today at an area newsstand to get the full story.” The story is a print-only exclusive, until tomorrow, when the full story goes up online. If it goes well for them, Progress managing editor McGregor McCance says they might try it, too.

Media General has their publications do a lot of dumb things, but this isn’t one of them. It’s actually a sensible strategy, because it drives readers to where the advertising (and copy-sales) dollars are. This might have been a foolish move a few years ago, but now newspapers are in such dire financial straits that it seems well worth a try. We do this at VQR, putting about half of the contents of each issue online and accessible to the non-subscribing public, and putting only the beginnings of the rest of the stories online, with promotions to read the rest by picking up a copy. The more time passes, the more of each issue is available online. After five years we open up everything to the public. Here’s hoping it works out for the News Virginian.

First Democratic City Council Forum Held

Published by Waldo Jaquith on April 25, 2009 in Politics. 9 Comments

The first public forum for the three Democratic City Council candidates was held a few days ago, Sean Tubbs and Brian Wheeler write for Charlottesville Tomorrow, with Dave Norris, Kristin Szakos, and Julian Taliaferro answering a total of seventeen questions on the water supply, infrastructure plans, the McIntire Parkway, relations with the county, noise pollution from the amphitheater, the YMCA, and more. Charlottesville Tomorrow provides the audio of the forum, with video and a transcript to come.

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