3:45pm | Freelance and staff writers for the now-defunct District Weekly newspaper in Long Beach have won a ruling from the California Labor Commission (CLC), which last month agreed that six writers are owed nearly $70,000 in wages and other payment.
The District Weekly launched as a free alternative weekly newspaper in April 2007, but fell on financial troubles and was forced to fold this March. Almost immediately, writers began to express that they were owed thousands of dollars by the weekly’s publisher, Seven Days Publishing, which was founded by District publisher Will Swaim and then passed on to his wife Heather Swaim.
On October 21, the CLC agreed that Swaim and Seven Days Publishing owed six full-time staffers $69,657.14 for wages and vacation pay.
“I feel vindicated. I understand that businesses close because they run out of money, but I think we were misled and treated unfairly,” said founding District Weekly Senior Editor David Wielenga, in a press release. “It is satisfying to have our sense of injustice officially validated.”
Each judgment against Seven Days Publishing accrues ten percent interest for each year it is not paid.
Swaim did not appear before the CLC, and is due in Long Beach Superior Court in early December to answer a small claims lawsuit brought by former District freelancer and current Long Beach Post columnist Greggory Moore, for the amount of $1,360 in unpaid wages. Moore outlined his experiences and some troubles during his time at the District in this article.
In just three years of existence, the District Weekly gained an almost immediate reputation as a watchdog over local politics, as well as extensive and creative coverage of food, entertainment and nightlife in Long Beach.