Editor's Note: Famous last words

This issue is the Mercury's last. As you may know by now, our owner, the Stephens Media Group, has acquired CityLife, and the company has decided--wisely--to make CityLife its flagship in the alternative newsweekly game.

The Mercury's demise is, to me, a very sad thing. Nobody in this business likes to see a newspaper--any newspaper--die. If any inanimate object can be said to live and breathe, to have a pulse, it is a newspaper, containing vast stores of tragedy, joy, rage and laughs within its words and pictures.

And for me the Mercury is more than just any newspaper. It's a newspaper that I, more than anyone else in the world, was responsible for. I didn't put up the money to produce the Mercury, but I was given the responsibility for creating it, launching it, managing it and working in every possible way to make it a successful venture.

People measure success in different ways. The way I measure it, the Mercury was very successful. We produced 220 weekly issues over more than four years. We never missed a deadline, and we never failed to do our very best to inform, agitate and humor our readers.

We built a faithful readership, if not a strong advertising base. In recent times, we printed 75,000 copies every week and distributed them to more than 2,250 locations across Southern Nevada. Our records show that at least 67,000 of them were picked up every week. So, we had more copies picked up than either CityLife or Las Vegas Weekly even printed.

It's possible, of course, that those 67,000 papers were being picked up primarily for puppy training or to protect glassware during a move. But we also know that the Mercury had enthusiastic readers, because they would call or write to us on a regular basis. Not just letters to the editor, but phone calls, handwritten notes and e-mails commenting on things we published. A whole bunch of people in Las Vegas will miss the Mercury next week.

But that's enough of that. Because there is no time for sober reflection when we have a newspaper to produce next week. That newspaper, of course, is CityLife. We Mercury folks, you see, are going to join the CityLife crew and throw everything we've got into making it one of the best alt-weeklies in the country.

We aren't going to Mercury-ize CityLife. They are different papers, and we understand and respect that. But we are going to bring with us a few of the Mercury's best and most popular features and weave them into the fabric of CityLife.

It won't be easy to merge these different newsroom cultures. But we will do our best to work through our conflicts by keeping our eye on the goal of high-quality journalism.

A lot of decisions still need to be made, but Mercury readers will be pleased to know two things: 1) George Knapp's column will move to CityLife and 2) Rob Brezsny's Free Will Astrology syndicated column will return to CityLife, where it first appeared in Las Vegas. Also, for better or worse, I will continue to write this column.

Other regular Mercury features and writers may or may not make the transition. Vigorous debates will occur, but it's not realistic or prudent for CityLife to take on too much Mercury material. As I said, they are different papers, and that's a good thing.

A big question, for some readers, is what will happen to our World Report humor pages. A final decision hasn't been made, but I seriously doubt they will make the trip. Satire was a Mercury staple. From the beginning, at the urging of Stephens Media Group President Sherman Frederick, it was one of the things that distinguished the Mercury from the competition. We developed a package of satirical features that were, often, hilarious. Credit goes to Andrew Kiraly, Kyle Gilliland, Andy Taylor and Roger Naylor for that. If laughter is the best medicine, World Report could be a miracle cure. But World Report wasn't for everybody, and it may not be a good fit at CityLife. (If you get to missing World Report, I urge you to take a regular look at www.theonion.com, which remains the gold standard of newspaper satire. Also, the Mercury's archives will continue to be available online.)

Well, that's about it. While I am saddened by the passing of the Mercury, I am excited about the future of CityLife. I hope you all will wipe away those tears (yeah, right) and come along on this new adventure.

--GEOFF SCHUMACHER