Signal Owner sues former Publisher Richard Budman
Written by Jeff on February 27th, 2008In a case that highlights some of the tensions and battles for ad dollars between Santa Clarita media properties, the owners of The Signal have sued the paper’s former publisher Richard Budman, complaining that Budman has violated a non-compete contract by operating a rival media publication and poaching journalistic talent from The Signal.
The lawsuit -filed in September 2007 but revealed publicly for the first time here on SCVTalk- asks the court to award Santa Clarita Valley Publications, a sister company of The Signal, millions of dollars in damages. SCV Publications is owned by Morris Multimedia, the same Georgia based newspaper conglomerate that owns The Signal.
Budman owns and operates BGL Broadcasting, a media company that produces and broadcasts Santa Clarita news and variety shows on Channel 20 and its website under the name SCVTV. The company formally began its operation in August of 2007.
After a three year tenure as The Signal’s part-owner and publisher, Budman resigned in May of 2007 over disputes with Morris about the direction of the newspaper.
As part of his termination agreement, Budman signed a non compete clause agreeing not to produce “any newspaper, magazine, or similar printed advertising or other printed media in Los Angeles County for a period of 10 years,” according to the complaint.
He also agreed to not to solicit any subscribers or advertisers of SCV Publications or its “affiliated publications,” which includes The Signal.
Finally, he agreed not to “encourage” employees at The Signal and other Valley Publicatiosn companies to join BGL Broadcasting.
Budman and his wife were paid $125,000 upon signing the agreement.
“Basically, I signed a non-compete agreement when I sold my interests to Morris,” Budman told SCVTalk in an email. “When I left The Signal, I made it a point to honor this agreement and stay out of the print business,” Budman said.
But the complaint alleges that Budman violated those terms within months of leaving The Signal.
“SCVTV.com contains various forms of printed media and advertisements, all in violation of the Agreements,” the complaint reads.
SCVTV.com is home to web-based videos produced by Budman’s company. 
“They tried to say that the SCVTV.com website was a print publication because you could print the pages of the site’s links,” Budman said.
Budman disputes the idea that SCVTV.com is a print publication. “Anyone can look at the website and see that it is not a print publication,” he said.
The suit also alleges that Budman and his company have encouraged “various employes of Valley Publications and its affiliated/parent company Morris Multimedia to leave and resign their positions of employment with such companies and join one or more of the Defendants.”
Such affiliated companies would include The Signal. The complaint says that Budman encouraged Leon Worden to leave his position as Editor of The Signal in June of 2007.
Finally, the suit alleges that Budman has attempted to “solicit and divert subscribers and advertisers” from SCV Valley Publications to SCVTV and SCVTV.com.
Videos produced by the company do have video advertisements from local businesses like Frontier Toyota, Henry Mayo Hospital and others. A small section of Google Ads appear on SCVTV’s homepage.
Overall, Budman says that the suit is intended to put Santa Clarita’s first independent televised news service out of business.
“They are basically forcing us to spend thousands of dollars to defend this. It is really a nuisance suit without any merit,” Budman said.
The complaint concludes by saying that Valley Publications has suffered “irreparable injury” to its business reputation due to Budman’s actions and asks for some $3 million in damages.
Budman said that Valley Publications asked for an injunction against BGL Broadcasting and SCVTV, but that was dismissed by a judge.
The lawsuit has yet to come to trial and both Plaintiff and Defense attorneys were still filing documents in Los Angeles Superior Court as of this week.
The Signal’s new publisher, Jay Harn, was contacted for this report but did not respond to a request for more information.
On the web:
Lawsuit (PDF)
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One might conclude that this is another good old boy arrangement. The City Council allowed Budman to take part of the public access channel and make it commercial entity. Seemingly to benefit three once key individuals that had to leave the Signal, and who over the years, had all been so kind to the City’s so called leaders.
Hopefully the Signal will become a much more independent investigative newspaper, and not just be the “Town Voice” it has been in the past.
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So what does the purchase of 496 acres of a rock pile for several hundred thousands of dollars, out side of the city limits have to do with the Cemex fight? Moneys that was cost planned for and should have been used for public facility replacements. Looks like the owner was able to unload the property under Kellar’s watch as Mayor in 2004. Probably a small town transaction void of public scrutiny. Add this to the $7 million Kellar has spent on the CEMEX fight and you get closer to $8 million. Bruce, please keep following the money!
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McFarland is fishing for headlines, not for facts.
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Well Bruce will not have to look far for the headlines. Anyone willing to follow the good old boy network can find them.
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McFarland offers nothing but his own “good ole boy” network. It’s the same thing, just different set of people. Like Pete Townsend said, “meet the new boss, same as the old boss . . . .”
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That’s fine, I do not know Bruce. That is not the issue. Someone needs to keep the Council and City manager in check. If Bruce is successful, fine. I am a republican with no interest in Bruce’s politics.
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I’m no expert, but by purchasing the surface rights and then annexing the land, doesn’t that make the city the primary enforcement agency for an eventual dump and a de facto party of interest with anything that happens there? Seems like an important measure to me should Cemex eventually prevail. As a municipal authority, LA County is awful. Do you know that no group of people have a more diluted vote for local representation than residents of unincorporated LA County - in the entire US!
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What dump? Interesting thought though, perhaps the site would be good location for the MRF.
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ahh I meant mine, but point taken
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I worked for Budman and his wife for a year and 1/2 and knew he was a crook the first day I started. He was running SCV Living Mag., and then started as Publisher of the Signal. He then wanted us to start packaging Signal and Living ads, and told us we would be paid for those ads in the Signal. I did not see one dime from any of those packaged ads. He also did funny stuff with credit card payments. It seemed whenever the mortgage was due advertisers would complain about their credit cards being charged to much, not on the right date or they would be charged for ads that were never even run. Then when the complaint would come in he would reverse it, but his bills would have already been paid. He also lied to a Judge at the Labor board where I sued him for unpaid commissions, and medical insurance he promissed to pay at my first 90 days. He produced a bogus check which made me look like a lier, and ultimately losing the case. Richard Budman is a crook, and a scammer. He promissed me the world to come and work for him, and I did leaving a job that I had for 14 years at the LA times. He has no remorse or heart. His wife is an ex drug addict who he saved from the streets.