A New York Press insider writes about recent troubles at the free weekly and the unfortunate cancellation of their annual intern-grabfest, "Summer Guide Party."

So it turns out the New York Press has cancelled its infamous annual Dionysian festival of debauchery, otherwise known as the Summer Guide Party, which up until this year had been held in the ballroom of the Puck Building and saw hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of New York City s finest freaks pile in to get drunk off of cheap liquor. Instead, the company is taking only the staff out for cocktails. Indeed, this follows right in line with the cost cutting policies of new company management that came in last year after buying out founder Russ Smith, aka, the Mugger.

Also last year, the staff experienced massive turnover as disgruntled employees booked it and seemingly stable workers were booted. Didn t help matters when the entire staff announced a 10 percent pay cut either. Neither was company morale improved when the editorial staff, namely editor in chief Jeff Koyen, was lambasted by NYPress defector Matthew X. Brodeur, who defected to the Village Voice and proceeded to produce a series of mocking cartoons that the NYPress tried to refute with a Page 2 drawing of its own unfortunately, like much of the talent in the pages of the free weekly rag, the response was barely fit to line the bottom of aviary abodes. And don t even get me started about the Sports Xpress it s like Sports Illustrated, in that it features Sports in the title.