AAN News

Orlando Weekly Drops Adult Ads This Week; Cops Release Transcriptnew

"Adult services will not be running this week because Orlando Weekly cannot ensure that doing so will not result in additional arrests of its employees by local police," reads the page in the alt-weekly where such ads would ordinarily appear. Instead, the paper printed the text of the First Amendment. Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation has released a transcript from the investigation that led to last week's arrests, but the Weekly's attorney cautions against reading too much into it. "We should not rush to judgment based on the release of a transcript from a single conversation from a two-year investigation," Bill Schaefer tells Local 6 TV. "We should examine the propriety of the release of potential evidence prior to judicial proceedings. It may deny the defendants a fair and impartial trial."
News 13 Central Florida | WFTV | Local 6 TV  |  10-25-2007  11:43 am  |  Industry 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

Orlando Weekly Hits Back on Prostitution Probenew

The first thing you notice when you land on Orlando Weekly's home page these days is an audio stream of Public Enemy's "Fight the Power" -- a message the paper is clearly taking to heart. In a story nearing 5,000 words published late yesterday, the alt-weekly comes out swinging at the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation (MBI), which arrested three of its employees on Friday on charges of deriving proceeds from prostitution and aiding and abetting prostitution. (The MBI also got a grand jury indictment for criminal racketeering against the paper.) The Weekly says that the arrests were simply retaliation for publishing critical stories about the agency, and as proof points to a host of other publications that carry similar ads, yet have not been targeted by the MBI. "The MBI is an inept, inefficient police organization, answerable to no one," the paper writes. "And if you dare confront the agency on their appalling record, they will try to put you out of business."
Orlando Weekly  |  10-23-2007  8:08 am  |  Industry News

Mobile Matters in Real Estatenew

Inman Real Estate News  |  10-23-2007  10:00 am  |  Industry News

Were Orlando Weekly Arrests Retribution for Critical Reporting?new

"Orlando Weekly believes these arrests are an outrageous abuse of process and an attempt to censor the First Amendment rights of a newspaper that has reported critically on the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation," publisher Rick Schreiber says in a statement. Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell seems to agree. "You'll have to forgive me if I'm a bit skeptical about the MBI's arrest of three staffers," he says, noting that the Weekly has "been all over the MBI like fleas on a dog in recent years." He continues: "And yet, in our story today, MBI director Bill Lutz seemed to deny that his department had a grudge against the paper. If that's what he's saying, it's a crock." For more coverage of the arrests, and links to past Weekly coverage of the MBI, check out the paper's blog.
Orlando Weekly | Orlando Sentinel  |  10-22-2007  12:25 pm  |  Industry News

Three Orlando Weekly Employees Arrestednew

Orlando police arrested the paper's classified advertising director and two account executives this afternoon on charges of aiding and abetting prostitution, the Orlando Sentinel reports. The Weekly's office was also "served notice on racketeering charges for contributing to the prostitution industry," according to the Sentinel. The charges stem from a two-year operation dubbed "Operation Weekly Shame." As part of the investigation, two female agents went undercover and presented themselves as prostitutes to three Weekly account executives, according to police. Criminal defense lawyer Daniel Aaronson says the Weekly did nothing wrong by taking adult-oriented advertisements. "The papers aren't doing anything illegal," he says. "They're taking ads. If an ad uses suggestive language, the stopping of these ads threatens the First Amendment."
The Orlando Sentinel  |  10-19-2007  2:54 pm  |  Industry 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

Yahoo Takes Open-Network Approach to Online Ad Partnershipsnew

"While Google extends its reach to sell ads on sites all over the web, Yahoo is appealing to big-name publishers with a different approach: You sell ads on our portal, we'll sell ads on your sites," AdWeek reports. Partners in the Yahoo network, which so far include WebMD, Forbes.com, Cars.com and Ziff Davis Media, can sell ads on Yahoo sites, and Yahoo can sell ads on partner's sites. "Typical ad network relationships are one way," says Todd Teresi, senior vice president of Yahoo's publisher network. "The open approach is going to become a new paradigm of how partnerships are struck."
AdWeek  |  10-17-2007  12:17 pm  |  Industry 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

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