The bid by vulture capitalist Fred Seegal to become a 50 percent partner of the weekly East Hampton Star has been torpedoed.
Co-owner and publisher Helen Rattray appears to be only days away from coming up with the necessary $2.5 million to buy out Arthur Carter’s 50 percent stake in the paper.
The speculation in the always-gossipy East End of Long Island is that Rattray has ransomed the Main Street building where the East Hampton paper is housed to raise most of the money.
New York Observer owner Carter bought into the Star in 1991, but under terms of the original agreement, Rattray had rights of first refusal if Carter ever decided to sell.
A deal between Carter and Seegal was reached about two months ago, and she has only days to complete the financing with a counter offer. The Long Island daily Newsday said yesterday that she had obtained the funds through “bank loans.”
“I don’t know why they would say that,” said Rattray, who refused to comment on any particulars. “We’re anxious to toot our own horn when and if it is appropriate,” said Rattray. But she was doing no tooting yesterday.
Jerry Della Femina – ad man, restaurateur and publisher of the rival East Hampton Independent, a free circulation weekly – said that Rattray’s son David, who has been editing the paper, was the driving force behind the move to shoot down Seegal’s bid.
“They’re losing circulation. It is clear that Fred Seegal was going to try to take David Rattray’s position away,” said Della Femina. “It’s also clear that the son doesn’t also rise.”
David Rattray would not comment. “I don’t have anything that I can say. I’m on deadline. Don’t take it the wrong way,” he said.
The Post countered, “We hear that . . . ” But before the sentence was completed, David Rattray interjected: “Hey, yo, yo, yo, yo!”
He then hung up the phone.
The new deal, if it is completed sometime in the next few days, will apparently give the Rattray family 100 percent ownership once again.
The paper is believed to have annual revenue in the $2.5 million to $3 million range, but has always been a marginal operation with meager profits, despite its high-end readership.
Carter first came on the scene after Rattray was rebuffed in her bid to buy the Sag Harbor Express and instead started a rival weekly in that town, which eventually folded.
Editor & Publisher puts the Star’s paid circulation at 11,350 – at $1 a copy – with another 777 distributed free. Rattray claims the circulation is higher. Della Femina says he distributes 25,000 copies of his free paper each week.