In a revealing and sometimes sad email message chronicling his last two years, the publisher of WeHo News has reached out for support for a new media venture.
Ryan Gierach recently sent the message to friends and contributors to his blog saying that an undisclosed company has agreed to buy WeHo News and fund his plan to create a “hard copy newspaper — without using text.”
Gierach, saying he was writing “from a flea bag motel in Lynwood,” said his work with WeHo News had been disrupted in the last two years because of treatment of his infection with Hepatitis C, a struggle with mental illness and his arrest on charges of felony assault, felony elder abuse and felony making of terrorist and criminal threats stemming from conflicts with his apartment building manager and other tenants. Gierach has previously disclosed his infection with HIV and addiction to meth.
“I have been, for nearly two years now, not well,” he said. “The saga began with a worsening of my Hepatitis C and a liver that almost quit on me, followed by a life-saving clinical trial of an experimental drug to cure that Hep C. The treatment, which fortunately lasted only three months, laid me flat.”
Then came his arrest after the altercation at his apartment complex. “We spent four days in jail on $100,000 bond, before being released without charges filed,” Gierach wrote, referring to himself and his husband, Marcus Fant. “No DA would touch the case, as the claims they all made appeared specious. The arresting deputy worked for three days to find a DA that would press charges, to no effect.”
Gierach said he spent last August through October in court contesting the landlord’s effort to evict him and attempting to overturn a temporary restraining order that limited his access to facilities in the apartment complex. Eventually, Gierach said, the landlord agreed to pay him to leave.
Gierach said things looked promising with the payment from the landlord and an anticipated $14,000 in ad revenue. But he said that KLEAN, the drug treatment center and his major advertiser, decided not to continue advertising and another major advertiser didn’t respond to requests to pay its bill. In addition, he said, his landlord didn’t pay the agreed settlement. Finally, KLEAN rescinded an offer to buy WeHo News and keep Gierach on board.
“On November 1, Marcus spent a few days on a friend’s sofa,” Gierach said. “They could not accommodate me and WeHo (his dog), so we did what everyone without a home does; WeHo and I slept on the streets for a few days …
“Each week, or every few days, depending on our resources, we went from hotel room to motel room, from one condo to the next and back to motels… The housing instability caused regular disruptions in my medication. Each month for four months I would be forced to go without my meds for as much as ten days at a time.
“None of you can imagine what that on-again off-again treatment for bi-polar disorder does to the brain chemistry and, in combination with the constant housing worry hanging over my head, the need to relocate as often as twice a week, how desperately ill I became.”
Gierach said he now is updating his blog, which for a while was silent, more often. And he said he is in negotiations with a media company whose identity he did not disclose to purchase WeHo News and fund the “newspaper without text” that he hopes to launch in West Hollywood. While the deal is not done, Gierach said he is optimistic.
Gierach founded the WeHo News blog in 2005 and for years it was one of the only web or print vehicles covering West Hollywood. Unlike more objective traditional news media, WeHo News was known for its opinion journalism, with Gierach never reluctant to attack political figures he didn’t like or praise those he favored. WEHOville.com launched in 2012, offering the first serious competition to WeHo News. Today, according to Amazon’s Alexa analytic service, WEHOville ranks number 60,000 among websites that Alexa tracks in the United States. WeHo News ranks a far distant 750,000.
“It would be my honor to once again carry your thoughts, work and words,” Gierach said his former contributors. “I will continue to deliver the hard news without the dirty tricks, biases and censorship of our competition,” he said in a reference to WEHOville.
Gierach did not respond to requests from WEHOville for comment.
Ryan and I certainly have had our differences over the years, but I hope he finds his way back to sobriety and good health….
Chris Sanger, I disagree. Hank is a direct competitor with Gierach, and that’s what makes this inappropriate. I believe he offered to buy Gierach’s publication out, even. Not to mention there have been previous articles about Gierach, which I’d hardly deem “newsworthy” (like him moving to Long Beach?): https://staging.wehoville.com/2015/10/07/weho-news-publisher-ryan-gierach-is-moving-to-long-beach/ https://staging.wehoville.com/2014/12/08/ryan-gierach-raises-rabbis-ire-blaming-jews-white-hollywood/ — Gierach’s e-mail was not sent to everyone in the public, and he has a public blog, so why not let him write about it himself, if he’s wants this made public? None of these articles frame Gierach in a positive light. I’m not here to defend Gierach, or say… Read more »
Gierach is unable to take responsibility for his actions, which have caused emotional and physical abuse to others. He says it’s because he’s mentally ill – THAT IS NOT an excuse to do whatever you want. It doesn’t make you above the law. The fact that he admits he can’t control himself means he’s a threat to the well being of others – he’s proven that by pouring beer on pets of his neighbors and throwing HOT coffee on neighbors and threatening the lives of neighbors, and slandering his neighbors on his blog – the list goes on. LOCK HIM… Read more »
Ryan has contributed a great deal to the City of West Hollywood. His influence prior to WehoVille was second to none. His personal struggles are not his alone, they resemble a community crisis and Ryan’s open discussions about his personal issues are honest and transparent. I believe that this story in WehoVille is written out of respect of a legend and is newsworthy. Personally I’ve shared many lunches with Ryan and have tried to understand his hardship. We are a city that gives a ‘hand up’ and in that regard we all should lend Ryan a hand for all he… Read more »
i have no idea who this man is or any knowledge of his story. that said, i did go to his website and stopped because it was irrelevant and poorly managed. i wondered why the page was inactive, then suddenly a new posting would appear. the above piece explains it all. don’t wish any harm to anyone, and while i question the editorial meanderings of wehoville, the article about ryan is a good start in explaining what went on behind his website. now, if someone has something constructive to offer, i’ll read it. but for now, the man’s life seems… Read more »
I agree with Chris that this is a sad but cautionary tale about someone who was very much a vital part of our community for many years. When WeHo News first came on the scene it was a collective effort of a diverse group of contributing community members under Ryan’s leadership and for a period it was West Hollywood’s newspaper of record. The chronicle of Ryan’s recent misadventures is painful to read and we can only wish him the best in his future endeavors.
Hank was totally in bounds here. A widely sent out email was the basis of the article, so hardly invading privacy. WeHoNews was for a while a vital part of the conversation (and its contrast to the vastly superior and professional WeHoVille relevant). It’s a sad story, but it personalizes some of the bad aspects of life in WeHo (meth, tenant issues, homelessness) that can happen to otherwise professional people. Thx for publishing this.
It’s sad really, Ryan had a lot going for him back in the day, but he really lost it. I used to enjoy reading Weho News, but at some point, I realized it just became a personal opinion page. I called him on it a few times, and he said to me, ” who did you think you are, the media police?” I was just a reader, who had noticed something had greatly changed. And, btw, he went after Henry Scott like crazy, when Wehoville was looking for financial supporters. Raked him through the coals on Weho News.
Duh! Are you people really reading that story? The editor of the longest running news organization in West Hollywood sends an email out to a large number of people citing his arrest on several serious felony charges, his mental condition and his hepatitis infection as reasons he has been living on the street and hasn’t been active with reporting. And that’s not a story? The LA Weekly wrote an incredibly sympathetic (and erroneous) story about Gierach’s moving on from addiction to success. Should they not have written that? And what if the editor of the L.A. Times sent out a… Read more »
“Unlike more objective traditional news media…”
If you want WEHOville to be known as “objective,” it would probably be in better taste to stop posting these gossipy “news stories” about Gierach, which seem to be meant to slam your competitor. You won the contest. Boasting about it doesn’t make you look any better, and it would be in better taste if you just stopped.
J Chud, i agree 100%. like most media, it’s all about opinion any way, this days the media control by people with money, from our T.V. news to our newspapers etc. to every story it’s 2 sides. i realize long time ago, here in WEHO is no different. Sometime i read “stories” and i know the facts are totally different. this is our world, we becoming people of hate, and drama. so sad. this why it’s about time that we the people of WEST HOLLYWOOD, can not be silent anymore. if you read few the articles about me, it’s almost… Read more »
This is the first I have heard of any of this saga, but if the author of this article claims to be practicing objective journalism, I am afraid that this piece is more of an editorial than objective. I am afraid I find this piece very disturbing on many fronts, and don’t understand how this made it into your paper.