AAN News
Alt-Weeklies Protest Arizona Officials' Outrageous Abuse of Power
To show solidarity with Phoenix New Times, members of AAN are providing links on their websites that direct their readers to the many
places on the internet where the home address of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is listed. Last week, New Times disclosed that its executives, writers, and even its readers were the target of a sweeping grand jury probe relating to the paper's publishing the sheriff's home address online; this disclosure led to the paper's co-founders being arrested. One day later, all charges against New Times were dropped. "Our association and its members won't tolerate this
sort of attack on the right of a member paper to publish information that is
and ought to be public record," says Tim Redmond, AAN First Amendment Chair Tim Redmond and executive editor of the San
Francisco Bay Guardian.
(FULL STORY)
Association of Alternative Newsweeklies Press Release |
10-23-2007 11:10 am |
Press Releases
Canadian City Bans News Boxes in Downtown Corenew
New Westminster, which sits about 12 miles from Vancouver in British Columbia, has approved the ban as part of a series of measures to address "livability and enforcement issues" in the city, the Georgia Straight reports. The ordinance, set to take effect Jan. 1, would affect more than 20 of the Straight's boxes. It's "very likely" that the city has violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, says Vancouver media lawyer David F. Sutherland: "There is a constitutional right, not only in the newspaper to distribute by traditional means in public space, but also on the part of readers to receive it in that way." Still, the news box ban isn't quite as draconian as an earlier restriction New Westminster had on the alt-weekly: In 1968, the city banned the Straight across the entire municipality.
The Georgia Straight |
10-22-2007 9:13 am |
Legal News
AAN Introduces HTML Newsletters
If you thought your daily AAN.org newsletter looked a little different this morning, you were right. AAN has transitioned the daily and weekly AAN.org emails from staid plain-text to rich HTML. Newsletters for AltWeeklies.com will soon make the same switch, once the site redesign is complete. To sign up for daily or weekly AAN newsletters or to update your preferences, click here (if you are an AAN member) or click here (if you aren't an AAN member).
AAN Staff |
10-18-2007 10:12 am |
Association News
Registration for AAN West Conference Now Opennew
This year's AAN West conference was organized a bit differently than years past: A committee of AAN members in Northern California did most of the heavy lifting, and they've put together a wonderful staff training program that includes business, design & production, editorial, and sales tracks. "The committee's focus was on staff training and providing an opportunity to network with others in the alt-weekly world," says the News & Review's Deborah Redmond, who chaired the committee that organized the event. The conference will be held Feb. 1-2 at the the First Unitarian Church in San Francisco. The early-bird registration rate is only $75 for AAN members and $150 for non-members (the rates increase by $25 after Dec. 7). Hotel options include the Cathedral Hill Hotel and the Kabuki Hotel (formerly the Miyako), which is also the site of the Web Publishing Conference that will immediately precede AAN West. (AAN members can also register now for the Web Publishing Conference, although the complete program won't be announced until next month.)
AAN Staff |
10-17-2007 9:27 am |
Association News
ABC Explains New Move to Count Web Traffic -- and How It Is Measurednew
Editor & Publisher |
10-15-2007 1:23 pm |
Industry News
East Bay Express Reaches Out to Graffiti Artists
Taking a cue from friends at the Sacramento News & Review, last month the Express launched "Urban Express-ions," a project that hopes to "pre-graffiti" distribution boxes by inviting local artists to adorn them with spray paint. The paper put out a call for artists, held a "painting day" in it's parking lot, and then displayed the results in a prominent Oakland gallery before putting the news boxes back on the street. "Instead of being blighted, we want these to be community art," says publisher Jody Colley, who spoke to AAN News with account manager Mary Younkin about the project. "We have new ownership at the Express and we really want to connect to the artist community more than we have in the past. This is kind of our first project doing that."
BONUS: Check out a video of the painting day below.
(FULL STORY)
BONUS: Check out a video of the painting day below.
(FULL STORY)
AAN News |
10-10-2007 12:11 pm |
Industry News
Chicago Law Bans Many Free-Paper Distribution Practicesnew
The ordinance, passed last winter to bar the door-to-door distribution of menus, brochures and the like, also bans many circulation practices for free newspapers, Editor & Publisher reports. The law reads: "It shall be unlawful for any person to distribute or to cause others to distribute ... newspapers, periodicals and directories of any kind on any public way or other public place or on the premises of any private property in the city in such a manner that is reasonably foreseeable that such distribution will cause litter," including "leaving stacks of paper on the ground without any means of securing them," a distribution tactic used often by free dailies and weeklies. There doesn't appear to have been any enforcement of the law against newspapers thus far, E&P notes.
Editor & Publisher |
10-09-2007 9:36 am |
Legal News
Tags: Circulation, Management
ACLU Weighs In on Library's Possible Banishment of Alt-Weeklynew
As we reported last month, a Phoenix suburb is in the process of deciding whether to remove the Phoenix New Times from its public library. The Chandler Library Board met on Sept. 20 to hear complaints from a lone resident against the paper, and will make its decision Nov. 15. The Phoenix-based ACLU chapter has sent a letter to the board urging it not to remove the paper and the other materials under consideration from the library, according to the Arizona Republic. "It's premature to say, 'We'll sue you,' but we wanted to add our strong feelings on the issue," says legal director Daniel Pochoda. "The neighborhood public library is the one institution -- the historical bastion of free speech -- that should always stand firm against pressure to censor newspapers or books."
The Arizona Republic |
10-04-2007 8:32 am |
Industry News
Some Big Dailies Are Emphasizing Circ Quality, Not Quantitynew
"Driven by marketing and delivery costs and pressure from advertisers, many papers have decided certain readers are not worth the expense involved in finding, serving and keeping them," the New York Times reports. As ad buyers have become more cost-conscious and have succeeded to some extent in narrow targeting with online ads, they've expressed less interest in reaching the reader who doesn't match a certain profile. Some major daily papers have responded by curtailing advertising, cold-calling, and offering promotional discounts, while others are cutting back and refining their geographic reach, the Times reports.
The New York Times |
10-01-2007 10:29 am |
Industry News
One Complaint May Lead to Phoenix New Times' Removal from Librarynew
Larry Edwards has voiced his objections to the alt-weekly being available at a suburban Phoenix library branch shared by a high school, and now the Chandler Library Board will hear the details today, the Arizona Republic reports. Library manager Brenda Brown said Edwards "questioned the appropriateness of the alternative newspaper's advertisements and articles for teenagers." Brown tells New Times' Stephen Lemons that this is the first complaint against the paper she's heard in the three years she's worked at the library. "New Times is nearly ubiquitous in this part of the world," Lemons writes. "And if the Chandler book-barn bows to what one local gum-smacker has to say, it's gonna make Chandler look like a town full of first-class hayseeds." Also on the Library Board's indecency agenda: a children's book about a racing sperm, a fairy tale DVD narrated by Robin Williams, and George Carlin's audiobook When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? A decision from the Board isn't expected until November.
The Arizona Republic | Phoenix New Times |
09-20-2007 8:43 am |
Industry News
AAN Board Member Resigns, Two Others Appointed
Executive editor Mike Lenehan (pictured) left Chicago Reader, Inc. on Aug. 30, and
as a result he has stepped down from his position as Diversity Chair on the
AAN Board of Directors. AAN president Stephen Leon appointed Jackson Free Press editor and current at-large
board member Donna Ladd to serve the one year remaining in Lenehan's term as
Diversity Chair, and appointed East Bay Express publisher Jody Colley to take Ladd's
at-large seat for the one year remaining in her term. "I think I speak for everyone on the board in expressing our gratitude for
Mike's service over the years," Leon says. "We're going to miss his dry wit, and also his common sense." Lenehan has served on the board since 2002 and was elected as the association's first Diversity Chair in 2004.
(FULL STORY)
AAN News |
09-18-2007 10:17 am |
Association News
Creative Loafing Starts to Make Changes at the Chicago Readernew
CEO Ben Eason recently told the paper's distribution drivers that they would be terminated as salaried employees and made independent contractors following this week's issue, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. The change would result in both a drop in income and a loss of benefits, and the majority of the 20-plus drivers have thus far rejected the offer. "It's just not economically viable anymore, and I don't know of any other alternative paper that works that way now," says Eason, who indicated if the stalemate couldn't be resolved, he would bring on new drivers. There have also been staff changes, according to the Sun-Times. Advertising director Don Humbertson and art director Sheila Sachs, both longtime Reader employees, have left the paper. "I don't want people to think that because we were purchased that folks have come in and made decisions to act against our best interests," publisher Michael Crystal tells the Chicago Tribune. "It's very simple for people to point fingers at new ownership and all that kind of thing. We're just trying to wade through this in a way that makes sense."
Chicago Sun-Times (second item) | Chicago Tribune |
09-13-2007 8:33 am |
Industry News
AAN Announces New AltWeeklies.com Application for iPhone Users
AAN has developed a special application for iPhone users (iphone.altweeklies.com), which displays AltWeeklies.com headlines and links to AAN member papers' content. While the application was specifically developed for the iPhone, it works on other mobile devices as well.
(FULL STORY)
AAN Staff |
09-07-2007 12:59 pm |
Association News
Boston Phoenix Hits Historic Readership Level for Second Year in a Row
Boston Phoenix Press Release |
09-06-2007 8:54 am |
Press Releases
AAN Announces Conference Schedule for 2008
The annual convention will be held in Philadelphia on June 5-7, with the Philadelphia City Paper hosting the event. In an unusual arrangement, the association will host back-to-back conferences this winter in San Francisco, with a Web Publishing Conference on Jan. 30-Feb. 1, and AAN West on Feb. 1-2. And in addition to the Alternative Journalism Writing and Design Workshop to be held in Evanston, Ill. on Aug. 15-16, AAN will organize a Publishers Conference for the first time in 2008, date and location still TBD.
(FULL STORY)
AAN Staff |
09-05-2007 3:53 pm |
Association News
