By Daniel Archuleta
Daily Press Staff Writer

CITYWIDE The local newspaper business just got a little smaller.

The Westside Chronicle, a local weekly newspaper that covered the Santa Monica area for the past year and a half, apparently published its final edition Sept. 2. According to various sources, the newspaper’s owner and publisher, Vipin Sahgal, had assured colleagues, readers and advertisers alike that the newspaper was undergoing some changes and would resume printing within weeks, but weeks have passed and the paper, which distributed to communities throughout the Westside, has yet to resurface.

At least one of the paper’s Santa Monica-based advertisers was given the bad news directly.

“We wanted to run another ad with them, but we were told that the paper had suspended operation,” said Liz Gerds, manager of Farthingales L.A., a local shop specializing in corsets. “We got some people coming into the store from it (the ad), but not a huge amount. Then again, we haven’t gotten too much business from any of the ads we have run over the years in any newspaper.”

Calls to the Westside Chronicle’s Wilshire Boulevard office revealed that the number had been disconnected and was no longer in service. The paper’s Web site, which was online as recently as Thursday, has been taken off-line, thus erasing any tangible trace that the paper ever existed. Those developments would seem to dispel the notion that the paper is undergoing just a temporary break from publication and hint at the paper staying dark for the foreseeable future.

The Daily Press made various attempts to reach Sahgal and other employees via e-mail with no success.

Jim Lynch, the Chronicle’s publisher before becoming president of the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce in October 2006, said that he didn’t even know that the paper had ceased publication and was puzzled by the paper’s sudden interruption. Lynch said that he hadn’t been in communication with anybody at the paper since leaving his post last year in a move to avoid any potential conflict of interest created by heading both organizations simultaneously.

Lynch and the chamber have since severed ties.

This latest drama for the Westside Chronicle should come as no surprise to local news readers. Saghal had been embroiled in a long-time dispute with the Beverly Hills Courier, a paper for which he had previously worked. The publisher of the Courier had accused Saghal of stealing trade secrets while employed by the company only to turn around and use that information to help launch his short-lived publication. Saghal vehemently denied the allegations and the two parties were involved in an ongoing legal battle when the paper ceased operation.

The Courier’s publisher, Clifton Smith, Jr., who had been engaged with the Chronicle in a protracted legal fight, refused to comment on the matter.

daniela@smdp.com