AAN News
Sarah Palin's Attorney Takes a Swing at the Village Voicenew
Thomas Van Flein issued a four-page letter on Saturday denying there was a brewing scandal behind Palin's decision to resign her gubernatorial office a day earlier. What's more, the statement put the media on notice that the Palin team would file defamation lawsuits against media outlets that repeated allegations about a possible scandal centered around a building contractor with close ties to the Palins. In a footnote, Van Flein points out these "insinuations" were published in the "left wing Village Voice" in an October 2008 story by Wayne Barrett. The piece examined links between Palin and several contractors who worked on a sports complex as part of a deeper look at Palin's previous record. "Van Flein's statement -- which derides 'modern journalism' for 'abhorring' due diligence and factchecking -- is actually longer than the section of the Voice story that examined the connections around the complex," Barrett writes, "but he does not challenge a single fact actually presented in our story."
The Village Voice |
07-07-2009 1:30 pm |
Industry News
Long Island Press Editor Steps Down
Robbie Woliver tells AAN News he left the Press last month to focus on his own startup company and to devote more time to promoting his recent book Alphabet Kids.
AAN News |
07-07-2009 11:52 am |
Industry News
Novelist Remembers the Early Days of the Seattle Weeklynew
"When David Brewster started the Weekly, I thought it was a fabulous idea because Seattle didn't have anything like the New Yorker but it's a rather sophisticated city," Alan Furst told The Stranger in an interview last month. Furst says that when Brewster approached him about writing for the paper, he was told he could write about anything, so he decided he wanted to write a football column. "The Nordstrom family had just bought the franchise for the Seahawks, and they brought in and unwrapped a brand-new team and there I was up in the press box, eating free hot dogs. It was great!"
The Stranger |
07-07-2009 8:42 am |
Industry News
Alts 'More Nimble' Than Dailies When it Comes to Social Medianew
That's the impression that BNET's David Weir got at last month's AAN Convention. "As those big guys crumble, it's an opportunity for us," an unnamed publisher tells him. "We know that they are stuck halfway between print and the web. And now they have to figure out what to do about mobile. They have far more resources than we do, but they also are much more bureaucratic."
BNET |
07-06-2009 2:19 pm |
Industry News
Forecast: Online Ad Spending Rising At Double-Digit Ratesnew
Online Media Daily |
07-06-2009 10:10 am |
Industry News
San Francisco Bay Guardian's Van is Stolennew
"Somebody broke into the Bay Guardian parking lot last night, rammed through the chain-link fence and drove away with our van," Guardian executive editor Tim Redmond writes. "Kinda crazy -- it's ten years old, it's all beat up -- and it has the Guardian logo all over it and a Best of the Bay mural on the side. Hard to hide."
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
07-01-2009 9:31 am |
Industry News
Fast Forward Weekly Accepts Ad That Calgary's Dailies Won't Runnew
The Vancouver Humane Society is trying to take its campaign against calf roping to Canada's biggest rodeo, the Calgary Stampede, but the group has had a hard time placing their anti-roping ad. It was rejected by the Calgary Herald and the Calgary Sun, but the ad -- which is not particularly shocking -- will run in Fast Forward Weekly. The Sun's publisher tells the CBC the ad is in "bad taste" and that the Vancouver Humane Society is "out of its jurisdiction." Fast Forward publisher Ian Chiclo disagrees. "As long as there are no legal issues, we're not in the business of muzzling advertisers," he tells AAN News. "The Calgary Stampede is a great event for the city, but groups should be allowed to express their opinion about the event."
The Globe and Mail | The CBC |
06-30-2009 1:00 pm |
Industry News
Chicago Reader Publisher Steps Downnew
Kirk MacDonald, who was also COO of Creative Loafing Inc., is leaving the company to rejoin the Denver Newspaper Agency, which controls the business operations of the Denver Post, as executive vice president for sales, marketing, and digital sales. MacDonald, who joined the Reader in September 2008, says CL CEO Ben Eason will take over the COO duties temporarily, and that a new publisher will be named for the Reader.
Chicago Reader |
06-30-2009 11:22 am |
Industry News
Alt-Weekly Alums Come Together at Seattle News Websitenew
Publicola was started in January by Josh Feit, a former news editor of The Stranger, to cover state and local politics in a time where fewer reporters are ensconced in state houses across the country. Feit has attracted some "significant" money, and recently hired another Stranger alum, Erica Barnett, as a full-time staff reporter.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer |
06-30-2009 10:16 am |
Industry News
Longtime Los Angeles Journo Coming Home to Edit L.A. Weeklynew
Drex Heikes, who served the Los Angeles Times for 18 years as the Sunday magazine's editor and foreign affairs editor in the paper's Washington bureau, has been named L.A. Weekly's next editor. He will start in August. The position will allow a homecoming of sorts for Heikes: He left L.A. in 2005 to work at the Las Vegas Sun, which recently won a Public Service Pulitzer for an investigation he assigned and edited. "Village Voice Media publishes vital newspapers because it has upheld the vision of its founding editor, Mike Lacey," Heikes says. "Mike is a reporter at heart. His mission has never wavered. First you report, and you report hard. Then you write -- and you do it as a storyteller."
L.A. Weekly |
06-30-2009 9:24 am |
Industry News
Smartphones & Social Networks Expected to Boost Mobile Advertisingnew
Reuters |
06-30-2009 12:36 pm |
Industry News
Thirty-Seven Websites Ready to Implement New Larger Ad Formatsnew
Online Media Daily |
06-30-2009 10:07 am |
Industry News
Membership Committee Recommends Two Papers for Admission to AAN
Of the five newspapers that applied for AAN membership this year, the Membership Committee is recommending that two be voted into the association: See Magazine and Inland Empire Weekly. The committee is also recommending that six current members who've experienced ownership changes be reaffirmed. AAN members will vote on these applications, as well as other matters, at Saturday afternoon's Annual Meeting. In addition, the Membership Committee is recommending that AAN take a look at allowing only-online publications to join the association. UPDATE (3:17 PM EST): The membership committee's report as originally uploaded was incorrect when it said that See's owner, Great West Newspapers, was "the largest" media chain in Canada. It's a large company, but not the largest in the country. The document in the resource library has been updated with the correct information.
(FULL STORY)
AAN News |
06-26-2009 1:14 pm |
Industry News
Writer Remembers Covering Stonewall for The Voicenew
We mentioned Lucian Truscott IV a few days back when looking at the Village Voice's complicated role in the watermark LGBT rights event at the Stonewall Inn 40 years ago. In a New York Times op-ed published yesterday, he remembers the scene and wonders why no one else covered it. "I blundered straight into the first moments of the police raid ... even a newly minted second lieutenant of infantry could see that it was a story," Truscott writes. "Amazingly, there was no TV coverage and only a few paragraphs in the city’s daily papers. Myths and controversies have arisen in the vacuum left by the mainstream news media."
The New York Times |
06-26-2009 10:41 am |
Industry News
Who Knew? Phoenix New Times Staffer Heads to the Maccabiah Gamesnew
The U.S. is sending nearly 1000 athletes to compete in the Maccabiah Games, the event sometimes referred to as the "Jewish Olympics" that takes place next month in Israel. Jewish News of Greater Phoenix reports that one of the competitors is none other than Phoenix New Times senior staff writer Paul Rubin, who will be on the men's fast-pitch softball team in the masters division. It won't be Rubin's first time at the games; he's a veteran, having won two gold medals and one silver medal while playing softball for the U.S. in 1985, 1989 and 1993. "Representing your country and your religion is a very important honor, and I'm taking it very seriously," he says.
Jewish News of Greater Phoenix |
06-26-2009 10:22 am |
Industry News
