Adrian Urias’ biggest mistake probably was sending an email to promote his small monthly magazine, “Your Shirlington Connection,” to the offices of Alexandria-based Connection Newspapers, publishers of the Arlington Connection. To be fair, Urias, who has lived in Shirlington for two and a half years, to this day has never seen a printed copy of the newspaper being distributed in the neighborhood.
“I personally have never seen one,” said Urias, who launched Your Shirlington Connection six months ago. Alas, Urias says he eventually received a note back from Connection Newspapers, asserting the company’s legal right to exclusively use the “Connection” name in Virginia.
“I thought I did enough to find out it was okay,” Urias said. “When I registered our company name in [Virgina], the name wasn’t flagged as a potential issue.”
Urias quickly agreed to change the name, and this past weekend asked readers to suggest a new name. He’s also looking for someone to come up with a new logo, once the new name is chosen. He has not sought the advice of a lawyer.
“It’s an unfortunate situation,” Urias said, but “they have been very understanding and cooperative.”
The soon-to-be-renamed magazine, which Urias says he started to build a greater sense of community in Shirlington, claims a circulation of 1,750.