AAN News
New Forecast for '08 and '09 Lowers Overall Ad Outlook, Boosts Onlinenew
Online Media Daily |
08-28-2008 8:46 am |
Industry News
How the Jackson Free Press Built an Uncommon Alt-Weekly Audiencenew
The JFP has "resurrected the alt-weekly tradition of maverick investigations and cultural provocation," Casey Sanchez writes in Next American City magazine. In doing so, "it has cultivated an audience uncommon in the South and practically nonexistent among alt-weeklies -- young, white conservatives and black professionals, many of whom are lifelong Jacksonians." Editor Donna Ladd says the paper's dogged coverage of City Hall has helped build a loyal following. "Any cover with the mayor on it doesn't stay on the stands more than a day," she says.
Next American City |
08-26-2008 11:11 am |
Industry News
Palo Alto Will Tweak News Rack Ordinancenew
The city is drafting an amendment to add flexibility to the nine-year-old ordinance, a senior project manager for the public works department tells the Palo Alto Daily News. The amendment, which requires city council approval, would allow daily papers to use abandoned boxes that had been reserved for weekly publications.
Palo Alto Daily News |
08-25-2008 12:34 pm |
Industry News
Alt-Weeklies Get Short Shrift at the Newseumnew
The $450 million museum dedicated to the news "might be seven levels high, take up 250,000 square feet, and feature floors of multi-media displays on topics as wide-ranging as gangsters vs. the FBI (and the daily newspaper coverage of it) and the history of tabloid newspapers (with covers of the National Enquirer from the days it was talking about Elvis's ghost) -- but it has no space for alternative weeklies," blogger Gina Vivinetto notes. She says that our corner of the news industry is "summed up behind a glass display with exactly one cover of the Village Voice and a paragraph saying alt-weeklies were born in the turbulent 1960s to cover news outside of the mainstream press."
Gina Vivinetto's Greatest Hits |
08-25-2008 12:28 pm |
Industry News
Opinion: How to Popularize, Socialize and Monetize Mobile Contentnew
Online Media Daily |
08-25-2008 11:34 am |
Industry News
Scores of AANies Head to Denver for the DNC
At last count, 24 AAN member papers will be sending 40 reporters, bloggers and photographers to Denver to cover this year's historic Democratic National Convention, which begins Monday. There will be plenty of alt-weekly staffers attending, and a few papers have secured notable bloggers for their coverage. Popular political blogger Atrios, aka Dr. Duncan Black, who runs Eschaton, will blog for Philadelphia City Paper, while "Slowpoke" cartoonist Jen Sorensen will blog for C-Ville Weekly and Tom Tomorrow will blog for the New Mass. Media papers. Westword, meanwhile, has published a special "Unconventional Guide to Denver" for all the press, pundits, and pols invading their city. And of course, Westword will continue to cover the DNC on its Demver blog, as it has been for months, with a dozen or so people on the ground blogging and taking pictures. For a list of AAN members attending the DNC, email web (at) aan.org.
AAN News |
08-22-2008 1:01 pm |
Industry News
Study: Marketers' Budgets Likely To Plunge Furthernew
Marketing Daily |
08-22-2008 10:00 am |
Industry News
Facebook Tests Engagement Adsnew
Online Media Daily |
08-22-2008 9:02 am |
Industry News
How The Stranger Negotiated a Deadline-Day Power Outagenew
On Tuesday -- "the busiest day in The Stranger's production cycle" -- a blown transformer caused power in the paper's offices to go out. After being told that the power might not be restored until 6 am Wednesday, the staff of The Stranger had to take matters into their own hands. "We did something that has never happened before in The Stranger's history," writes Christopher Frizzelle in the appropriately-titled blog post, "How We Got This Week's Issue to the Printer." The staff ended up taking all of the equipment in the production department over to web development director Anthony Hecht's living room, where they wrapped the issue on time.
The Stranger |
08-21-2008 11:59 am |
Industry News
Alt-Weekly Editor is Main Character in Katrina Novelnew
Tom Piazza's new novel City of Refuge, released yesterday by Harper books, features an editor of a fictional New Orleans alt-weekly named Gumbo who evacuates to Chicago after Hurricane Katrina. As the Times-Picayune points out, that character "certainly bears a resemblance to Michael Tisserand, former Gambit editor." But Piazza explains that all the characters are fictional. "Even if a writer is writing a novel about his or her best friend, in the course of that writing, the friend turns into something else -- a character," he says. When asked about the resemblance, Tisserand tells Gambit that "the scaffolding [for the character] is in part me, but the building is all Tom's."
The Times-Picayune |
08-20-2008 10:07 am |
Industry News
Worcester Magazine Sold to Local Weekly Publishersnew
The Holden Landmark Corp. yesterday purchased the alt-weekly from Worcester Publishing Ltd. for an undisclosed sum, according to reports. Landmark owns four community weeklies in Central Massachusetts and a monthly parenting magazine. Owner and publisher Allen Fletcher tells the Worcester Business Journal that he sold the magazine because he had arrived "at a time in my life when I was looking to make a change. It's a personal path I've been on for a few years." He told the Telegram & Gazette that the paper was in good health, with this year seeing a 30 percent increase in revenues over last year. Landmark publisher Gareth Charter says they have "no interest whatsoever in suburbanizing Worcester Magazine," but he hopes it can expand the company's advertising reach, by allowing businesses to target the city as well as individual suburbs where Landmark already has weeklies. The deal is expected to close Aug. 29.
Worcester Telegram & Gazette | Worcester Business Journal |
08-20-2008 8:01 am |
Industry News
Study: Consumers More Likely to Act on Ads Seen on Local Media Sitesnew
Adweek |
08-20-2008 10:42 am |
Industry News
Study: Many Small-and Medium-Sized Businesses Plan Ad Spend Increasenew
Online Media Daily |
08-20-2008 8:03 am |
Industry News
Police Department 'Reviewing' Phoenix New Times Photosnew
Local law enforcement authorities want to determine whether to open an child pornography investigation as a result of photos published in the paper's current issue and on its website, according to the East Valley Tribune. The nude photos of artist Betsy Schneider's children accompany a story about her art, which is featured in a photography show that opened last week in downtown Phoenix. A spokesman in the Maricopa County Attorney's Office and an assistant city attorney in Phoenix's civil division confirm that the police have referred the case. The city attorney says the photos are unlikely to be found illegal, but adds that if they are, "Everybody who picked up one those issues (of the New Times) could be prosecuted for possessing child pornography."
East Valley Tribune |
08-19-2008 12:16 pm |
Industry News
Palo Alto Weekly to Combine Print Editions, Launch 'E-Daily'new
Late next month the Weekly will begin publishing a single weekly print edition every Friday and a new electronic edition, "Express," Monday through Friday, publisher Bill Johnson announced last week. (The Weekly is unique among AAN members in that it currently produces two print products each week, one on Wednesday and one on Friday.) "Our vision is to increasingly rely on our website and our daily electronic edition to provide local news and sports coverage, and to use our newspaper to present in-depth and feature coverage, plus summaries of the week's news," he says. The move reflects changing reading preferences and the increased prominence of the internet, while offering the added benefit of reducing the paper's carbon footprint, Johnson says.
Palo Alto Weekly |
08-18-2008 12:20 pm |
Industry News
