LEO sold and editor Stemle released ... freelancer annoyed.

It's old news, but as a LEO "freelancer", i.e., I write the "Mug Shots" beer column every other week, I received an e-mail Thursday letting us know that the newspaper had been acquired by SouthComm Communications.

So what? More corporate shenanigans, to be sure, and what really hurts is that Cary Stemle, LEO's editor, was cut loose as part of the deal. My notification note phrased it like this:

To be frank, we're all a little shocked by the news, and obviously, we're all close to Cary and are upset that he's not here right now. We expect and understand the emotional reactions to this sort of news. However, we plan to keep our focus where it's always been: putting out quality work and making sure our freelancers are as well taken care of as possible.

In effect, Cary hired me (a fellow Hoosier -- that means something) to write the beer column, and it's annoying to watch something like this happen without the ability to tweak a bigwig or make a difference in the outcome. I suppose I'll just have to pound Anheuser-Busch by default in an upcoming column ... er, already had it planned prior to this week. Same difference.

Here's the "boilerplate" about the transaction:

LEO acquired by SouthComm Communications