AAN News
Business Organization Pulls North Coast Journal Over Pot Covernew
The Arcata (Calif.) Mainstreet (AMS) has pulled all copies of last week's North Coast Journal from its periodical room and many of the businesses that belong to AMS have followed suit, the Arcata Eye reports. The paper was pulled for one week due to "the connection it made between very, very real needs of students and pot" in its back-to-school issue, says Taffy Stockton, AMS executive director. (The cover's subhead reads "Your student guide to housing, transit, surfing and weed.") Not everyone in town agrees with the position of AMS, though. A Humboldt State University public affairs officer tells the Eye that the university had no intention of removing any Journals from campus. "That would be Stalinist," Paul Mann says. North Coast Journal editor Hank Sims adds that banning his paper won't do much to reverse the cultural association of Humboldt County and pot. "Sorry, but that's what it's known for around the world," he says. "You can't close your eyes and make it go away." He added: "Humboldt County has a very high percentage of people who are pot smokers or are simply interested in the issue and we want those people as our readers."
The Arcata Eye |
08-20-2007 8:27 am |
Industry News
Charleston, S.C., Daily Embarks on Distribution Schemenew
Evening Post Publishing, parent of the daily Post and Courier, has offered cash to at least 50 local retailers and restaurants to replace the various newspaper racks in their establishments with single multi-publication boxes, Charleston City Paper reports. The Evening Post would then turn around and charge the city's free publications for space in the new boxes. City Paper publisher Noel Mermer says the alt-weekly will not be involved in this distribution "partnership." "The City Paper cannot and will not pay the Post and Courier for the relationship that we have built with local businesses over the years," Mermer says. The situation in Charleston is similar to ones increasingly faced by alt-weeklies in other markets, such as Jackson, Miss., where the Jackson Free Press and the publishers of other publications developed the Mississippi Independent Publisher's Alliance and distributed their own consolidated boxes.
Charleston City Paper |
08-15-2007 2:07 pm |
Industry News
Orange County Faux-Alt Kills Print Editionnew
SqueezeOC, the weekly launched two years ago by Orange County Register parent company Freedom Communications, will go online-only Aug. 31, the Register reports. Twenty percent of the paper's employees were laid off and an unspecified number of others were reassigned. "Management is spinning fast about the publication's troubles," OC Weekly's Janine Kahn writes. "The spinners didn't admit it, but it's clear that the publication -- billed ridiculously as "alternative" -- is hemorrhaging dough. Instead, they're putting the word out that going digital is the way to reach their target audience. Puh-lease."
Orange County Register | OC Weekly |
08-14-2007 10:31 am |
Industry News
Chicago Reader Ends Suburban Editionnew
Publisher Mike Crystal tells Crain's that as part of its redesign plans, the paper will distribute just one edition to both the city and suburbs starting this week. The suburban edition -- a smaller version of the paper called the Reader's Guide to Arts & Entertainment -- was launched in 1996. Crystal says the decision is part of the switch to a tabloid format (scheduled for the first week of October), and it likely would have happened with or without the paper's recent ownership change. The Reader's new circulation total of 135,000 will be the same as the combined circulation was for the two editions, but the paper is calling it a 15 percent increase in circulation for the main product and is raising ad rates six to seven percent, Crain's reports.
Crain's Chicago Business |
08-09-2007 8:34 am |
Industry News
Restaurant Franchise Removes Alt-Weekly from Stores ... for a Momentnew
In June, North Carolina's Independent Weekly released an issue featuring a transgendered individual on the cover, which ultimately caused the paper to be pulled from some Raleigh-Durham area Mellow Mushroom pizza restaurants. "The picture on the front cover ... was eye level of children in our waiting area," the local franchise owner explained to the Bull City Rising blog. "We have carried the Indy for so long I forgot it was there until a soccer mom complained about it. After a few more comments/complaints we removed them." Local bloggers publicized the decision and blog commenters vowed to boycott the restaurant and placed calls to the owner, and eventually the Mellow Mushrooms reversed course. "I absolutely regret the decision to remove the Indy from the restaurants," he wrote in a comment on Bull City Rising yesterday. "On Monday I was in contact with the Indy to bring it back to our stores. They want to bring it back as well and it will be there any day. The last thing we intended to do was discriminate against anyone."
Bull City Rising blog |
08-08-2007 8:56 am |
Industry News
Philadelphia City Paper Distributor Jimmy 'Pretzels' Pasquarella Diesnew
Philadelphia City Paper |
08-07-2007 8:44 am |
Industry News
AAN Releases 2007 Convention Survey Results [members only]
AAN Staff |
08-01-2007 12:44 pm |
Association News
Will Real Estate Ads Return to Newspapers After Housing Slump?new
It's an open question, reports Associated Press, after talking to several real estate executives who say they are moving more of their advertising online. "For our agents, newspapers are an old standby," says Abby Lee, director of regional advertising for a major real estate franchisor. "With younger agents, there’s a trend of going online. There’s a realization that’s where they need to be." Newspaper publishers need to move more aggressively to hold on to real estate advertising, argues Charlie Diederich, the director of marketing and advertising at the Newspaper Association of America. "We’ve got to improve both our print but especially our online products ... so consumers will continue to come to us first so we can deliver that audience to the professional realtor," Diederich tells AP.
AP via Editor & Publisher |
07-30-2007 3:45 pm |
Industry News
Who Will the New Creative Loafing Turn to For National Ads?new
CEO Ben Eason tells Editor & Publisher he's not sure if the now-six paper chain will continue to use the Alternative Weekly Network (AWN) for national ad sales or switch over to the competing Ruxton Group, which currently handles ad sales for the Chicago Reader and Washington City Paper. "We have been longtime AWN folks," he says. Ruxton, which was founded by the Reader, is now owned by Village Voice Media. Eason says figuring this out is one of his top priorities. He also tells E&P that strength in the national ad market is a key aspect of this week's deal. "Now with Chicago and D.C., all of the sudden you have enough critical mass and it becomes a go-to place for ad agencies on Madison Avenue," he says.
Editor & Publisher |
07-26-2007 12:22 pm |
Industry News
Creative Loafing CEO Meets With Chicago Reader Staffnew
The Reader's Michael Miner reports that Ben Eason didn't focus on editorial matters in Wednesday's meeting, but rather on "web opportunities, regaining ground lost to Craiglist in classified advertising, and the efficiencies of centralizing the design work in Atlanta," a change Miner notes "is likely to cost a dozen or so Reader employees their jobs." After the meeting, when Miner asked Eason about editorial, he said "it's everything" -- but Miner isn't so sure that's Creative Loafing's approach. He thinks the Creative Loafing papers' design "doesn't respect the stories it ought to serve. If the centralized design staff makes this the look of the Reader ... I think readers will judge it as antithetical to what they've understood the Reader to be." According to Miner, Creative Loafing will turn the Reader into a one-section tabloid, a change the old owners were also planning.
Chicago Reader |
07-26-2007 11:01 am |
Industry News
Chicago Reader, Inc. President: 'I Guess it Was Time'new
"We've received so many overtures over the years and they’ve never come to pass," Bob Roth tells Reader media critic Michael Miner. "[But] we got a better offer than I expected." Creative Loafing CEO Ben Eason tells the Washington Post it was an "eight-figure sale" and that he tried to buy the Reader's minority stakes in the Stranger, the Portland Mercury and the Amsterdam Weekly, but that Roth wouldn't sell. Miner tells the Chicago Tribune that the Reader staff is "discombobulated" at the moment. "This has been a very insular paper," Miner says. "We've seen other papers buffeted by change that hasn't affected us until now." Miner also reports that Reader publisher Mike Crystal and editor Alison True will remain with the paper, but production will be moved to Atlanta, according to a report in the Chicago Sun-Times. Production of City Paper will also be moved to Atlanta, where all four of Creative Loafing's papers are currently produced. Back in Washington, editor Erik Wemple says that budget cuts that had already begun will continue, but "there's no fat in our newsroom that I can identify and so this is difficult process. I refuse to pay freelancers less money, and so we'll have to get terribly, terribly creative." MORE COVERAGE: Forbes; Crain's; St. Petersburg Times; Chicago Public Radio.
Chicago Reader |
07-25-2007 9:11 am |
Industry News
Creative Loafing Inc. Acquires Chicago Reader and Washington City Paper
The Reader and City Paper, which were both controlled by the founders of the Reader, were acquired today by Creative Loafing Inc., which owns alt-weeklies in Atlanta, Tampa, Sarasota and Charlotte. "Our expansion into Chicago and Washington reflects our confidence in the future of alternative publishing -- in print, on the web and in other media as they emerge," CEO Ben Eason says in a statement. "We've had a great ride," the Chicago Reader Inc. owners say in a separate press statement released by president Bob Roth. "Now we're happily handing the keys to a new generation, Creative Loafing and their CEO Ben Eason. We're confident they will build on what we've established and carry it ably into the future." The Reader statement also notes that most of the company's shareholders will retain their minority interests in The Stranger, Portland Mercury, and Amsterdam Weekly through a company to be called Quarterfold, Inc. MORE: City Paper's Mike DeBonis reports that Eason told the staff that publisher Amy Austin and editor Erik Wemple will remain in their posts but some financial, technology, and production operations will be shifted to offices in Atlanta and Tampa.
(FULL STORY)
Creative Loafing Inc. Press Release |
07-24-2007 2:04 pm |
Press Releases
Chicago Reader Inc. Statement on Sale to Creative Loafing
Chicago Reader Inc. Press Release |
07-24-2007 2:13 pm |
Press Releases
AAN Adds 'Members Only' Content to Website
The little red "A" logo you see next to today's AAN News story on the Austin Chronicle means the full text of that story is available only to AAN members. Every so often, we'll use that designation to highlight features we've developed specifically for AAN members that you won't find anywhere else.
AAN Staff |
07-23-2007 11:54 am |
Association News
ABC to Integrate Print Readership, Online Audience Into Circ Reportsnew
NAA press release |
07-17-2007 11:06 am |
Industry News
