The owner of the Falls Church News-Press tried to buy the Blade from its bankrupt parent company, the Washington City Paper reports.

According to a press release issued today, Nicholas F. Benton, who has published the FCNP since 1991, won a bid in September to purchase the assets of the Blade "for purposes of a seamless perpetuation of the nation's oldest gay community newspaper." Benton says the sale process continued through November 6, and then he didn't hear anything until yesterday, when he was informed the paper had been shuttered. "Everything was in place, although moving slowly, to make the seamless transition we hoped for. But I remain unaware of what happened, and as a result of Monday's events, the Blade is gone after 40 years of publication, its employees are out of work, and the nation's and region's LGBT community has been stripped of an invaluable institution," Benton said in the statement.

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