Concern at Governing Magazine Over Its Sale to Scientologists

[Kha Khan]

NY Times: Concern at Governing Magazine Over Its Sale to Scientologists.

Excerpts:

November 23, 2009

Concern at Governing Magazine Over Its Sale to Scientologists

By TIM ARANGO

Over the last several months, The St. Petersburg Times published a series of scathing articles on the Church of Scientology under the rubric “The Truth Rundown.” In 1980, the newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize for an investigation of the church’s inner workings.

Coverage of Scientology has long been an important story for The St. Petersburg Times, given that the church’s spiritual headquarters is located in nearby Clearwater, Fla.

So it came as a bit of a shock when, on Friday, the newspaper’s management announced that it would sell one of its sibling publications to a California media company whose top management are Scientologists. Governing magazine, which is based in Washington and for 23 years has covered the workings of local and state governments across the country, will be sold to e.Republic, whose founder and other top executives are Scientologists. The sale is expected to close after Thanksgiving.

Some of the anxiety among the staff stems from a 2001 article in the Sacramento News and Review, an independent weekly, about e.Republic. That article, which has been widely read by Governing’s reporters in the last few days, reported that e.Republic’s staff members are required to read a book on management called “Speaking From Experience,” written by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology.

Mr. Corty, the St. Petersburg executive who led the sale, said he was in a no-win situation: if he didn’t sell to e.Republic, which offered the highest bid out of six contenders, he would have been accused of discrimination.

“I felt I would have been criticized either way,” he said.

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Catholic Online: Times Publishing sells D.C. magazine to Scientology?

Excerpt:

The Sacramento News & Review described e.Republic as Scientology, Inc. in an August 2001 article. According to the article, “On your very first day as a new hire at e.Republic, you’re given a copy of ‘Speaking From Experience,’ a management training book written by the late L. Ron Hubbard.

“All new hires at e.Republic, a publishing company based in Folsom, California, are required to not only read the book, but also take a course based on its contents, which—notwithstanding the grandiose description above—reads much like the same kind of hokey training materials that millions of workers try to avoid daily, except Hubbard’s methods have the higher goal of ‘improving conditions in your business, your life and on Earth in general.’”

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WWP: Concern at Governing Magazine Over Its Sale to Scientologists

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