AAN News
How I Got That Story: Gilbert Garcia
In the sixteenth installment of this year's "How I Got That Story" series, San Antonio Current music editor Gilbert Garcia talks about his winning columns, which Ling Ma says are all "portraits of mediocrity." She's talking not about Garcia's writing, of course, but about the subjects he covers: The Police, Paul McCartney, and American Idol Haley Scarnato. Garcia discusses his band, the role a music critic should play, and the difficulty of writing about something you know very well. "When you know too much about a subject, you almost have too many approaches you could take," he says.
(FULL STORY)
AAN News |
11-14-2008 12:44 pm |
Association News
How I Got That Story: Rob Harvilla
In the fifteenth installment of this year's "How I Got That Story" series, Village Voice music editor Rob Harvilla talks to Ling Ma about his winning columns, which included a memorable Venn diagram-based breakdown of a breakout hip-hop hit. While Harvilla doesn't take himself too seriously (he says his career choice is "pretty frivolous"), you can tell he is serious about music by reading his work. In this Q&A, he discusses the rock critic's lexicon, how blogs and the web have impacted music criticism, and the distinct absence of rock-critic groupies. "It's a great job and I love it, but I don't think women are generally attracted to rock critics on the basis of them being rock critics," Harvilla says. "It's usually in spite of that fact."
(FULL STORY)
AAN News |
11-11-2008 1:08 pm |
Association News
Alt-Weeklies Seek to Help the Economy by Promoting Local Shopping
The readers of more than 70 alternative newspapers are being urged to spend at least $100 of their holiday money this fall at locally owned stores in their communities -- a move that could pump more than $2.9 billion into urban economies during this recession-plagued season. The Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, the American Independent Business Alliance, and East Bay Express publisher Jody Colley helped develop the unprecedented project, and AAN helped line up 73 North American papers to participate. "If every one of the 17.5 million readers of these weeklies were to spend just $100 with local, independently owned merchants, the impact would be enormous," Colley says.
(FULL STORY)
AAN |
11-07-2008 10:58 am |
Association News
How I Got That Story: Nick Welsh
In the fourteenth installment of this year's "How I Got That Story" series, the Santa Barbara Independent's Nick Welsh discusses his award-winning media coverage of the local daily. In the midst of reporting on turmoil at the Santa Barbara News-Press, Welsh eventually became part of the story himself, as he was sued by the paper for copyright infringement. He tells Tess Martinez how he became the go-to guy for News-Press news, the chilling effect of being sued by another paper, and how the Independent has stepped in as the News-Press has essentially committed suicide. "Santa Barbara is a community trying to figure out how to live without a daily paper," Welsh says. "At the Independent, we're trying to figure out a way to become a de facto daily with the internet. We're doing OK, but we're still struggling."
(FULL STORY)
AAN News |
11-06-2008 1:23 pm |
Association News
How I Got That Story: Nate Blakeslee
In the thirteenth installment of this year's "How I Got That Story" series, Nate Blakeslee talks about how he uncovered sexual abuse in Texas' youth prisons for the Texas Observer. The investigation ignited a firestorm that led to the arrests of two employees and the firing of top officials. Blakeslee says the key to his story was a document he was tipped off to and then was able to procure. "Reporters don't often run into documents like this one. In fact, a person can go a whole career without a case like this," he says. "This story was just waiting out there to be found. I can say if you find something like this, get it into print as soon as you can."
(FULL STORY)
AAN News |
11-04-2008 12:23 pm |
Association News
Tags: The Texas Observer, Nate Blakeslee
How I Got That Story: Jeffrey Anderson
In the twelfth installment of this year's "How I Got That Story" series, Jeffrey Anderson talks about his multi-part investigative series "The Town the Law Forgot," which uncovered shocking abuses of power by government officials in Los Angeles County. He tells Sam Stoker how he started on this thread, and how he kept at it until it all started to unravel for him. Anderson, who wrote the series for L.A. Weekly but has since changed coast and is a staffer at Baltimore City Paper, also gives some advice to anyone undertaking an investigation. "The main thing is you just can't plan things out in advance," he says. "Things don't occur logically sometimes. You just need to be ready to revive things you have let go of. You just can't plan it."
(FULL STORY)
AAN News |
10-30-2008 3:54 pm |
Association News
2009 AAN Convention Comes to a Desert Destination Resort in Tucson
Next June, AAN members will descend on the JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort & Spa in Tucson for the association's 32nd Annual Convention, hosted by Tucson Weekly. "This is one of the nicest places AAN has ever used for a convention," says San Francisco Bay Guardian executive editor Tim Redmond, who visited the property along with other AAN board members for a meeting last month. Read here for more about the convention and the lush Starr Pass resort.
(FULL STORY)
AAN News |
10-29-2008 1:29 pm |
Association News
How I Got That Story: Suzanne Podhaizer
In the eleventh installment of this year's "How I Got That Story" series, Seven Days food editor Suzanne Podhaizer talks about her winning columns, which covered oysters, bread-making and the intersection of chain-restaurant casual dining and sustainability. Podhaizer tells Ling Ma about how she approaches describing food, what she'd cook for her last meal, and the telling theme of her wedding vows. "My vows were almost entirely about how meaningful it is to share food with somebody, and meeting someone you want to give the best parts of a meal to," she says.
(FULL STORY)
AAN News |
10-28-2008 11:45 am |
Association News
How I Got That Story: Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl
In the tenth installment of this year's "How I Got That Story" series, former City Pages staff writer Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl talks about her award-winning entries for Food Writing. She tells Angelica Herrera she started writing about food because she "needed the protein," though she's gone on to win numerous awards for her food writing. Moskowitz Grumdahl talks about her process for reviewing a restaurant, what she thinks the impact of a bad review can be, and the perks of being a food critic. "I was renovating my house once and realized I hadn't had a stove for four years," she says. "You don't have to wake up early -- and you get free lunch and dinner, and sometimes even brunch."
(FULL STORY)
AAN News |
10-24-2008 1:14 pm |
Association News
AAN Hires New Advertising and Awards Coordinator
The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies has hired Jason Zaragoza to the newly created position of advertising and awards coordinator. His first day with AAN was Oct. 14. Zaragoza takes over for Stephanie Roswell in handling the logisitics of the AAN CAN classified network, and for Heather Kuldell in coordinating the AltWeekly Awards. "Jason is smart and organized, and he has an incredibly professional attitude for someone so young," says AAN executive director Richard Karpel. "We're counting on him to keep AAN CAN and the awards contest running smoothly."
(FULL STORY)
AAN News |
10-23-2008 1:49 pm |
Association News
Find AAN on Facebook and LinkedIn
Are you a member of Facebook or LinkedIn? If so, AAN invites you to join our groups on each of these social networking sites. Click here to join us on Facebook, and here to do so on LinkedIn.
AAN |
10-20-2008 9:35 am |
Association News
How I Got That Story: Donna Ladd
In the ninth installment of this year's "How I Got That Story" series, Jackson Free Press editor Donna Ladd discusses her award-winning feature on the Seale family, which has long ties to the Ku Klux Klan, but has tried to ameliorate its past. She talks to St. John Barned-Smith about how they found the story, how her upbringing in Mississippi informs her work, and how she connects with her sources. "I find the best way is to just have absolute interest in what they're saying," Ladd says. "I have no judgment when I'm sitting in front of someone. I am a sponge.
(FULL STORY)
AAN News |
10-16-2008 1:18 pm |
Association News
How I Got That Story: Megan Feldman
In the eighth installment of this year's "How I Got That Story" series, the Dallas Observer's Megan Feldman talks to St. John Barned-Smith about her award-winning feature on Central American migrants who make often-deadly 1,500-mile trips on freight trains to make it to the Mexican-American border. Feldman went to Mexico to immerse herself in the experience of these immigrants, and also was able to tell the story through one person who had made the journey and ended up in the Dallas area. She says the most challenging aspect of reporting the story was finding that source: "In Dallas, there's a particularly harsh backlash against immigrants, and on the other side of that, there's a very high level of fear among the immigrants, so it took a long time to find someone who'd be willing to tell their story."
(FULL STORY)
AAN News |
10-14-2008 11:49 am |
Association News
Tags: Dallas Observer, Megan Feldman
How I Got That Story: Zane Fischer
In the seventh installment of this year's "How I Got That Story" series, Santa Fe Reporter columnist Zane Fischer discusses his award-winning column, Zane's World, with Elena Brown. Fischer, who came to the alt-weekly world from the nonprofit sector, talks about the steep learning curve he faced starting out as a SFR columnist, how he comes up with ideas, and what he wishes more columnists would do. "Invoke a dialogue," he says. "One component of a column should be the continuous dialogue with the readers. It's all part of the process of building community."
(FULL STORY)
AAN News |
10-09-2008 2:10 pm |
Association News
How I Got That Story: Gustavo Arellano
In the sixth installment of this year's "How I Got That Story" series, OC Weekly staffer and ¡Ask a Mexican! columnist Gustavo Arellano discusses his column, which for the second time in three years won a first-place AltWeekly Award. He also talks to Elena Brown about getting hate mail, the immigration debate, and what he likes about writing for alt-weeklies. "At a daily newspaper, they ask you to do one thing and one thing only. I'd get so bored so fast I'd quit my job," Arellano says. "Here, I could write about anything, so long as it's good. That freedom is so intoxicating I can't see why anybody would not want a job like mine."
(FULL STORY)
AAN News |
10-07-2008 12:53 pm |
Association News
