AAN News
Dan Pulcrano Buys Online Paper in Los Gatos, Calif.new
Pulcrano, the CEO and executive editor of Metro Newspapers Group, has signed an agreement to purchase the Los Gatos Observer. The site will be run by the division of Metro known as Boulevards.
Los Gatos Observer |
02-17-2009 1:17 pm |
Industry News
Mobile Entertainment Foundation Releases Top 10 Trends for '09new
Mobile Entertainment Foundation |
02-17-2009 12:52 pm |
Industry News
Tags: Electronic Publishing, Management
More on the Alt-Comics Meltdownnew
Washington City Paper recently saved $8,000 by dropping all of its syndicated comics, the Chicago Reader's Michael Miner reports. City Paper still carries one local strip, "Dirtfarm," only because author Ben Claassen lets the paper run it for free. "City Paper feels like family to me," Claassen tells Miner by way of explanation. But Lynda Barry, who quit her "Ernie Pook's Comeek" strip, and her friend Matt Groening are feeling less familial these days about their former alt-weekly clients. Nevertheless, Groening keeps plugging away, creating "Life in Hell" every week even though his success with The Simpsons has left him financially secure. "I like sitting down once a week and knocking something out all by myself," says Groening. "The rest of my life is full of collaborators."
Chicago Reader |
02-13-2009 3:30 pm |
Industry News
Phoenix New Times Duped by NBA Tattoo Cap Hoaxnew
Takes one to know one? Maybe not. Despite New Times' propensity to publish the occasional tall tale, staff writer Niki D'Andrea admits that this time the paper fell victim to another publication's spoof. In a lengthy cover story about the tattoos of Phoenix Suns basketball players, D'Andrea credulously reported that NBA Commissioner David Stern was proposing a "tattoo cap" limiting each team's "roster as a whole to 61 percent tattoo coverage of the 'upper arms and necks.'" D'Andrea says she picked the story up from Foxsports.com, which posted an item originally published on a blog called the Gerbil Sports Network. Bloggers Alana G, who first caught New Times' mistake, and Heat City, weigh in on the incident.
Phoenix New Times |
02-13-2009 2:36 pm |
Industry News
News Editor Reflects on 10 Years at the Providence Phoenixnew
"I've been privileged to enjoy the alt-weekly journalist's brief of reporting and writing lengthy articles on the various topics, from the serious to the fanciful, appealing to the wide-ranging interests of Rhode Islanders," writes Ian Donnis. He is leaving the alt-weekly to become public radio station WRNI's political reporter.
The Providence Phoenix |
02-13-2009 12:09 pm |
Industry News
Small Local Businesses Not Keeping Up With Online Presencenew
Though 63 percent of consumers and small business owners turn to the internet first for information about local companies and 82 percent use search engines to do so, only 44 percent of small businesses have a website and half spend less than 10 percent of their marketing budget online, according to new research from Webvisible and Nielsen.
The Center for Media Research |
02-13-2009 8:25 am |
Industry News
Former Alt-Weekly Columnist Drops Out of Mayoral Racenew
Joe Lance, who wrote the "Civic Forum" political column for Chattanooga's The Pulse until early 2008, entered that Tennessee city's 2009 mayoral race back in November, but has since withdrawn and endorsed former Parks & Recreation director Rob Healy. Election officials tell the Chattanoogan that Lance's name will remain on the ballot because they didn't know he was giving up his run.
The Pulse |
02-12-2009 10:45 am |
Industry News
Tags: Management, The Pulse
'New' Models for Journalism Look a Lot Like Alt-Weekliesnew
Business Week's Michael Arndt and Hypercrit's Michael Becker let a little air out of two lofty plans for the future of journalism by noting that both bear some resemblance to an already existing business model. Business Week looks at The Printed Blog, the recently launched weekly print product that repackages blog posts and is currently operating in three cities. The paper's founder, Joshua Karp, says eventually he would like to publish more local content and do so more frequently. "In other words, it would evolve into an alternative newspaper," Business Week notes. At Hypercrit, Michael Becker deconstructs Jane Stevens' idea of "mini-metros," which would be built around a limited number of subjects, perhaps even one beat, but would be exhaustive in those areas. "Stevens' mini-metro model is not exactly a new idea," Becker writes. "The general idea of niche mini-metros has always been with us in the form of alt weeklies."
Business Week | Hypercrit |
02-11-2009 12:20 pm |
Industry News
Survey: Marketers Cutting Costs, Reducing Budgetsnew
Marketing Daily |
02-11-2009 8:45 am |
Industry News
Village Voice Media Execs Talk Web Strategy
VVM's digital publishing strategy has been in the news quite a bit lately, whether it was the company's partnership with a social-networking site or its use of Digg to help drive traffic to its stories. Chief operating officer Scott Tobias and web and digital operations director Bill Jensen spoke with AAN News this week about where the paper is going with web publishing. They tell us that digital is a growth area for VVM, both in terms of pageviews and revenue, and they talk about new projects like geo-targeted ads and a national food website.
(FULL STORY)
AAN News |
02-10-2009 4:28 pm |
Industry News
What Role Will Alt-Weeklies Play in the Future of Journalism?new
In an all-star panel of journalism experts discussing the industry's future on the New York Times website, several people point to alt-weeklies as having an important role going forward. Columbia University Journalism School dean Nicholas Lemann says that alt-weeklies are one type of organization that will fill "the gap in independent reporting on matters of public importance left by ailing newspapers." Meanwhile, Arizona State University journalism professor Rick Rodriguez thinks that alt-weeklies, along with ethnic media, "mostly will survive, and possibly even thrive by specializing in coverage of fields like entertainment or local politics."
The New York Times |
02-10-2009 12:35 pm |
Industry News
Tags: Management, Marketing
Judge: Companies Must Contract For 'Unique' Visitorsnew
Ruling on a lawsuit brought against WebMD, a New York judge says that the term "visitors" in an online ad contract does not mean "unique visitors." Judge Doris Ling-Cohan added that if companies want guarantees of unique visitors, they must spell out that expectation in the contract.
Online Media Daily |
02-10-2009 9:19 am |
Industry News
Alt-Weeklies at the Moviesnew
Although it was tops at the box office last week, we haven't seen He's Just Not That Into You yet, so we'll have to trust a review in Cleveland's Sun News that says Drew Barrymore (pictured) plays Mary, "a free spirit selling ads for an alternative newspaper." (It isn't the first time that Barrymore has "sold" alt-weeklies.) In other alt-weeklies-at-the-movies news, the Dead in the South blog notes that "a young reporter/publisher of an alternative newspaper" is one of the characters in The Wizard of Gore, the remake of the 1970 splatter film.
The Sun News (Cleveland) |
02-10-2009 8:45 am |
Industry News
Tags: Management
Ticketmaster, Live Nation to Mergenew
CNET |
02-10-2009 3:24 pm |
Industry News
Tags: Management, Retail Advertising
Santa Barbara Independent Reporter Heads to Iraqnew
Against the advice of friends, family, and colleagues, The Independent's news reporter Ben Preston has embarked on a month-long embedded tour of Iraq with the U.S. Army's 425th Civil Affairs Battalion, which is based in Santa Barbara. Why? "I'm hoping to take a look at some of the economic work that is being done here," he explained. "I knew that coalition forces from all over the world were here, but seeing how many non-military people are working here, it becomes apparent that many people have become economically dependent upon the rebuilding process." Follow Preston's continually updated blog online at independent.com/iraq.
Santa Barbara Independent |
02-09-2009 8:48 am |
Industry News
