Public fight, private settlement by the Bay

The San Francisco Weekly and Bay Guardian have ended their feud over ad rates and have agreed to a confidential settlement, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.The locally owned Guardian had successfully sued the alt-chain Weekly for $21 million over cut-rate ad pricing.

Fortunately, the terms of the settlement, the details of which I expect will be unearthed soon enough, did not require the papers to like each other:

Bruce Brugmann, the Guardian's editor and publisher, said Monday that the case produced "a model for protecting other small, independent businesses facing predatory pricing schemes from competitors."

Andy VanDeVoorde, a Village Voice Media executive, said SF Weekly would "continue business as usual" and "has continued to widen its lead over the Guardian, despite the six-year legal distraction."

(h/t Romenesko)