AAN News
Weekly Dig Art Director's Book of Comic Strips is Outnew
Longtime Dig art director Tak Toyoshima has put a collection of his "Secret Asian Man" comic strips together in his first book, Secret Asian Man: The Daily Days. The book features every single daily comic strip he produced for over two years of syndication with United Feature Syndicate. "My goal was never to get picked up for syndication in daily papers but when it happened, I took a good look at what was out there and was shocked," he tells former Dig colleague Craig Kapilow. "SAM was touted by United Features as being the first daily syndicated comic strip featuring an Asian-American lead, which was unbelievable and sad at the same time." MORE: Ever wanted to see video of a topless porn starlet setting a book of comics on fire? You're in luck, thanks to the latest "Comic Book Witch Hunt" video from Nick Gazin, in which Ryan Keely sets The Daily Days aflame. (Depending on where you work, this may or may not be NSFW.)
URB Magazine |
02-09-2010 12:53 pm |
Industry News
AltWeekly Awards Hard Copy Deadline Extended to Feb. 16
Due to potential weather-related mail delays, the deadline for hard copy submissions has been extended to Tues., Feb. 16. Entrants submitting payment with their entries will also have until that date to submit payment.
AAN News |
02-09-2010 12:05 pm |
Association News
Tags: Design & Production, Editorial
Alt-Weeklies Nab Dozens of New England Press Association Awardsnew
Three AAN members took home plenty of awards in this year's New England Newspaper and Press Association Better Newspaper Contest. Boston Phoenix staff writer Mike Miliard was named Weekly Journalist of the Year (judges said he was "obviously a very versatile and talented journalist") as part of the Phoenix's haul of 18 total awards, including 11 first-place wins. Worcester Mag took home nine awards, with five first-place finishes, while Burlington's Seven Days finished first in three categories and won seven total awards.
New England Newspaper and Press Association (PDF) |
02-09-2010 9:24 am |
Honors & Achievements
Deadline to Apply for AAN Membership Extended to Feb. 19
The application deadline for newspapers to apply for AAN membership has been extended two weeks to Feb. 19. You can download an application here, or contact AAN to have one mailed to you. Find out more about admission guidelines and membership requirements here.
AAN |
02-05-2010 3:36 pm |
Association News
2010 AltWeekly Awards Deadline Approaches
Entries must be registered through the contest website by 11 p.m. EST on Monday, Feb. 8.
Each entry must be registered online, regardless of whether the material itself is being entered in PDF or tearsheet format. Hard copies and payment must be received in the AAN office by 5 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 11.
(FULL STORY)
AAN News |
02-05-2010 9:00 am |
Association News
Tags: Design & Production, Editorial
Videos, Presentations from Web Publishing Conference Now Available
Scores of alt-weekly staffers descended on San Francisco's Argonaut Hotel last week for AAN's 2010 Web Publishing Conference. Publishers, editors, ad sales managers and others came together for one-and-a-half days of virtually non-stop panels and presentations on how best to manage digital publishing now and in the future. If you weren't able to make it to the conference, or want to share what you learned at a particular session, you can check out videos from nine of the 12 sessions and PDF presentations of several sessions in the Resource Library.
(FULL STORY)
AAN |
02-04-2010 5:47 pm |
Association News
Baltimore City Paper Comics Contest Judges Want Winning Comic Backnew
Tom Scocca, Tony Millionaire, Dina Kelberman, Benn Ray and Emily Flake have written a letter to City Paper asking the paper to bring back Larnell Custis Butler's "Just Ask Larnell" strip, the most recent winner of the alt-weekly's comics contest. The writers, all of them judges in the contest, allege that the paper "broke the terms of the contest" by dropping the strip before its promised year run was up. But editor Lee Gardner begs to differ. "Contest winner or not, Ms. Butler's comic became part of City Paper's weekly editorial content, and each aspect of that content runs or not at my discretion," he responds. "She will receive full payment for a year's run. I have a good deal of regard and respect for Ms. Butler, but I stand by my decision."
Baltimore City Paper |
01-28-2010 10:13 am |
Industry News
Center for Independent Media President to Kick off Web Conference
David Bennahum will kick off AAN's 2010 Web Publishing Conference with a keynote address on the rise of new media amidst the collapse of the newspaper industry. Bennahum has been following new media since 1994, when he began writing for Wired magazine; additional reporting of his on the rise of the internet and its impact on our culture has been published in The New York Times, New York magazine, and The Economist. His Center for Independent Media, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization, publishes six public-interest news sites around the country (many of which feature alt-weekly alums as reporters). Bennahum's talk will be Thursday, Jan. 28 at 9:15 am, kicking off a day and a half of intensive web publishing programming. For more details on the conference, click here.
AAN |
01-22-2010 1:30 pm |
Association News
San Francisco Bay Guardian Art Director Part of New PBS Music Shownew
Mirissa Neff is one of three reporters for the new PBS primetime series SOUND TRACKS: Music Without Borders. The pilot for the show, which aims to "[explore] the world, combining journalistic curiosity with the adventure of travel and the soul-satisfying, hip-shaking pleasures of great music," will be airing on PBS stations on Monday, Jan. 25.
PBS |
01-20-2010 10:45 am |
Industry News
Miami New Times Art Director: Tight Budget Makes Me a Better Designernew
"While having a tight budget can sometimes feel like a curse," New Times' Pam Shavalier tells Robert Newman, "I absolutely feel that I would not be the designer I am today if I didn't have to break out my Photoshop skills to make the dollars stretch." The blog entry highlighting Shavalier's "powerful, graphic covers" is the latest by Newman as he highlights excellent cover design being done by alt-weeklies all over the country.
Society of Publication Designers |
01-20-2010 9:36 am |
Industry News
Mr. Fish's Contract With L.A. Weekly Expiresnew
The cartoonist's contract expired on Friday; he spent nearly six years as the Weekly's regular cartoonist. Booth tells Neon Tommy he had known for a few months about the contract, so he hired an agent and has been working on new ventures in recent months, including two book proposals, which are currently being pitched to publishing houses in New York City. But the Weekly's editor says that the paper likely hasn't seen the last of Mr. Fish. "We still plan to use him from time to time and may renegotiate contract for regular use," Drex Heikes says. "I have an email from him and plan to talk to him soon." MORE: Mr. Fish sounds off on the state of the Weekly on his blog.
Neon Tommy |
01-19-2010 9:24 am |
Industry News
Want to Help Haiti? South Florida Alt-Weeklies Will Match Your Donations
Miami New Times, New Times Broward-Palm Beach and Village Voice Media have already cut one check to the Partners in Health relief organization, and they are now offering to match any other AAN paper's donation, up to a total of $10,000. We caught up with Miami New Times publisher Kevin Thornburg to find out a little more about the project.
(FULL STORY)
AAN News |
01-15-2010 6:04 pm |
Industry News
Westword's Covers are 'Original, High-Energy, and Incredibly Engaging'new
That's Robert Newman's take, as he continues to highlight the excellent work being done by alt-weekly art directors around the country. Jay Vollmar, who has been Westword's art director for 10 years, comes from a background doing rock posters, and he tells Newman his approach to the two are very similar. "I usually apply the same principles to Westword covers as I do to poster projects," Vollmar says. "It starts with trying to boil a story down to its basics and then illustrate that in a simple image that can grab you from across the street. I just try to basically capture the vibe of a story much like I do with a band, the specific lyrics, words or details aren't as important or workable as the overall theme."
The Society of Publication Designers |
01-13-2010 8:35 am |
Industry News
Ken Doctor Scheduled to Speak at Web Publishing Conference
Leading journalism analyst Ken Doctor will help kick off AAN's Web Publishing conference with a big-picture talk on the future of news as we enter the first truly digital news decade. He will speak on the afternoon of Thursday, Jan. 28 at the San Francisco conference, which you can find out more about here and register for here (early registration discounts have been extended until this Friday). We recently caught up with Doctor via email to find out more about his upcoming book, and how he thinks alt-weeklies are positioned to emerge in the digital future.
(FULL STORY)
AAN |
01-12-2010 5:20 pm |
Association News
Register Today: Limited Space Available at AAN West Conference
With well over 150 registrants from 20 AAN member publications, the 2010 AAN West conference, slated for Jan. 29-30 in Berkeley, is already exceeding expectations. Seats are limited, so interested publications should register their attendees soon to guarantee admission to the conference. Detailing programming information and links for registration can be found at this link.
(FULL STORY)
AAN |
01-08-2010 3:31 pm |
Association News
