A $2.2-million bill for printing and related costs is pending in the Ray County, Missouri, Circuit Court. The suit involves a claim by The Kansas City Star against former Kansas City mayoral candidate Janice Ellis, her husband E. Frank Ellis, and a company they control which published a short-lived Sunday newspaper supplement called “RiseUp.”
The latest development in the case was in late March, when The Star countersued RiseUp, the Ellises and Ellis Management Marketing Group, Inc, or EMMG, which is controlled by the Ellises.
The venue for the case is Ray County Circuit Court because Janice and Frank Ellis claim to live in Richmond, the county seat of Ray County. Frank Ellis is chairman of Swope Community Enterprises.
The Star’s answer and counterclaim, filed March 24, came in response to a petition filed in February by EMMG, RiseUp’s parent company. In the February filing, EMMG and the Ellises claimed that EMMG and the Ellises should not be subject to a pending arbitration proceeding involved in the $2.2-million debt.
Their petition alleged that EMMG and the Ellises were not parties to RiseUp’s printing and distribution agreements with The Star and therefore were not subject to The Star’s demands for payment.
In its answer, The Star said that the printing and distribution agreements speak for themselves. And in the counterclaim, The Star said RiseUp had failed to pay invoices of more than $2.2 million. The Star is seeking payment of that amount, plus interest at the rate of 9 percent and attorneys’ fees.
All parties to the case declined comment, including Star Publisher Mark Zieman and Janice Ellis, speaking through her attorney, Catesby Ann Major.
RiseUp was founded by Ellis, who described the magazine’s mission as providing a sustained conversation about race, religion and ethnicity. The weekly insert was launched on June 22, 2008, and had circulation of more than 4 million through distribution in newspapers that included The Star, The Washington Post, New York Daily News and The St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Six weeks later, RiseUp suspended publication. Ellis, in a note to readers, said the magazine was preparing to expand its distribution and would resume publication in a couple of months. The magazine, which was printed in The Star’s state-of-the-art printing plant, has not reappeared.
Although he is not named in the lawsuits, Arthur S. Brisbane, a former Star publisher and later executive vice president of Knight Ridder Newspapers, advised Janice Ellis in development of RiseUp.
As called for in agreements between The Star and RiseUp, the dispute last year went to arbitration – a form of alternative dispute resolution under which the parties agree to abide by the decision of an arbitrator or arbitrators – after Rise Up, which is now defunct, failed to pay The Star.
According to The Star’s counterclaim, The Star and RiseUp signed the printing agreement on May 12, 2009, and the distribution agreement on June 19. Before that, both Ellises had signed agreements personally guaranteeing payment to The Star, the counterclaim states.
Only weeks later, things unraveled. On July 14, 2008, The Star commenced collection efforts. In a Sept. 3 letter to RiseUp Publications, EMMG and the Ellises, an attorney for The Star, Benjamin Mann, wrote:
“We further understand that representatives of The Star have had numerous conversations with you beginning on July 14 about this issue in which you have given assurances that payment would be forthcoming, but no payments have been made.”
Last December, Los Angeles Newspaper Group, owner of the Los Angeles Daily News and other West Coast newspapers, filed a breach-of-contract action against RiseUp in Jackson County Circuit Court. The one-page petition alleged that RiseUp owed that group $93,306 for unspecified goods and services.
 |
 |