AAN News

Alt-Weekly Report Leads to New Mexico's Divestment from Sudannew

Nine days after the Santa Fe Reporter revealed that the State Investment Office had $42.3 million tied up in "highest offender" corporations conducting business in Sudan, New Mexico became the 22nd state to commit to a divestment plan, according to the Reporter. "We are also sending a strong message to the corporate world that New Mexico will not accept investment profits that come at the expense of innocent lives lost to genocide," state investment officer Gary Bland says in a press release.
Santa Fe Reporter  |  11-15-2007  1:47 pm  |  Industry News

Willamette Week Publisher: We're Enjoying Great Healthnew

In his annual report to readers, Richard Meeker says that despite "the gloom-and-doom reports" on newspapers across the country, Willamette Week's story in 2007 "is anything but a tale from the crypt." He notes that "this will be the paper's best year ever in display sales," with sales up 7.6 percent over 2006. And although classifieds continue to decline, with sales down about $115,000, total revenue at the paper is expected to be up 4 or 5 percent from last year, with pre-tax profit expected to be about 5 percent. "If [the paper was] owned by a media conglomerate, co-owner Mark Zusman and I would have been relieved of our responsibilities long ago for unsatisfactory financial performance," Meeker writes. "While we certainly could be a little more efficient, we feel it would seriously harm the culture of our operation to try to match national averages calling for profits two to three times greater than ours."
Willamette Week  |  11-15-2007  9:08 am  |  Industry News

Chevy Wants to Be Seen as Greennew

Detroit News  |  11-15-2007  9:52 am  |  Industry News

Measurement a Hurdle to Ad Spend on Emerging Medianew

Center for Media Research  |  11-15-2007  9:50 am  |  Industry News

Hey, That's Not an Alt-Weekly!

According to AAN executive director Richard Karpel, reporters often mistakenly apply the term "alternative newspaper" to the wrong publications. So in an effort to "make some small contribution to human understanding and the brand equity of our member papers," he decided to note every time he sees the term used incorrectly. In this first edition of "Hey, That's Not an Alt-Weekly!" -- an irregular series devoted to the correct use of the term "alternative newspaper" and all its variants -- Karpel explains what an alternative newspaper is and why The Sun News in Santa Fe, N.M., doesn't qualify. (FULL STORY)
AAN News  |  11-14-2007  8:07 am  |  Industry News

Advice Goddess Amy Alkon Inks New Book Dealnew

The rights to the syndicated columnist's book, Revengerella: One Woman's Battle to Beat Some Manners Into Impolite Society, have been sold to McGraw-Hill. The book will feature "true stories of the spectacular ways a self-described 'manners psycho' pranks cell phone abusers, telemarketers, spamsters, road hogs, and other bad guys out of being rude."
AdviceGoddess.com  |  11-13-2007  1:11 pm  |  Industry News

Bay Area Publishers Catch Newspaper Thieves in the Act

Last month, the publishers of OPEN EXCHANGE MAGAZINE, a quarterly directory magazine in the Bay Area, began wondering why many of their news boxes were suspiciously empty. They started staking out locations in the early morning hours, and last week, they caught two people stealing their magazines, along with the East Bay Express, SF Weekly, San Francisco Bay Guardian and others. Since California law makes it a crime to steal more than 25 copies of any free paper, they filed this report with the Oakland Police Department. (FULL STORY)
AAN News  |  11-13-2007  8:11 am  |  Industry News

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