AAN News
Gambit Weekly is Back in Business
After distributing this week's issue one day early, on Saturday, so readers fleeing Hurricane Gustav could grab a copy on their way out of town, about half of Gambit's staff are back in the office today, publisher Margo DuBos tells AAN News. The entire staff of 35 are expected back tomorrow. Much of New Orleans is still without power, but Gambit is running on a generator purchased after Katrina, furiously working on next week's issue, which will see the light of day on Monday, just one day after the paper's unusual Sunday street date. The alt-weekly also kept a steady pace of blogging over at the Blog of New Orleans before, during, and after the storm.
AAN News |
09-04-2008 1:40 pm |
Industry News
Weekly Dig Responds to Nude Illustration Flapnew
The Dig's media column this week tackles last week's "story" by WBZ-TV "reporting" that a nude illustration on the Dig's cover had sparked an outrage in Boston. "Look, we get it. The end of the summer is a rough time in the local news cycle," the column reads. "This is when news outlets bring out their own special brand of made-up news. We no longer start wars Hearst-style (we'd kill for that kind of budget), so you have to find something and say, 'This is an outrage/issue!' and go up to everyone within a small radius and say, 'Isn't this an outrage/issue?' and then quote the three people who agree."
Boston's Weekly Dig |
09-04-2008 8:45 am |
Industry News
San Diego CityBeat Trims Paper Sizenew
San Diego CityBeat |
09-03-2008 8:50 am |
Industry News
Nude Illustration on Weekly Dig Cover 'Sparks Outrage'new
Local CBS affiliate WBZ-TV says this week's cover is "raising quite a controversy in Boston," and in classic local TV news style, finds three (count 'em, three!) residents to prove it, their reactions ranging from "weird" to "crazy" to "sick." The WBZ reporter even tracks down Boston Mayor Thomas Menino to give him a glimpse. "It's totally irresponsible to have a photo like this in a paper that's widely distributed around our city," Menino says. "Young children can see it. It's not what we should be showing our young people." Menino also says he's going to look into whether he can remove the Dig's news boxes from "nearby city buildings." Dig art director Tak Toyoshima tells WBZ that "the point of the cover is to celebrate summer, the end of summer -- it's the last hurrah." He adds that the illustration, done by Syracuse artist Phil McAndrew, "is not, to me, sexual at all. They're nude, but there's nothing sexual happening."
WBZ-TV |
09-02-2008 9:15 am |
Industry News
More Staff Cuts Could Be On the Horizon at Washington City Papernew
DCist reports that City Paper's parent company Creative Loafing needs to cut the paper's budget by $170,000. The belt-tightening could lead to additional layoffs at the alt-weekly (some production and editorial staffers were laid off after CL purchased City Paper and the Chicago Reader last year). "Like a lot of media companies, we are going through an exceptionally rough period, and indeed we are discussing how to cut expenses," editor Erik Wemple tells DCist. "I don't want to cite any figures at this point because we are trying our best as a company to minimize the impact. But yes, layoffs are part of the discussion."
DCist.com |
09-02-2008 8:28 am |
Industry News
New LEO Owner Talks About His Plans for the Papernew
Chris Ferrell, whose SouthComm Communications bought the Louisville alt-weekly in May, tells the 'Ville Voice that they are busy working on a redesign of LEO's website, and that there will be a lot of emphasis on the web when the new site debuts in late September. He also says that he's added one staff writer and has been working on the design of the print product. "The paper looks better now that (sic) it did three months ago," Ferrell says. "We've created a larger news hole, and we wanted to make sure we have the kind of content people expect, even when the ad/edit mix doesn't justify it."
The 'Ville Voice |
08-28-2008 10:08 am |
Industry News
New Owners Shuffle the Editorial Deck at Worcester Magazinenew
With the exception of one person, the entire editorial staff will no longer have jobs at the paper tomorrow when the sale to Holden Landmark Corp. closes, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports. Three non-editorial staffers also will not be offered jobs with the new company, and one full-time position will be made part-time. "As we merge the Holden Landmark Corp. and Worcester Magazine, we are retaining 88 percent of the combined company's employment base," the paper's new publisher Gareth Charter says in a staff memo explaining the changes. Jim Keogh, current editor-in-chief of the Holden Landmark newspaper group, will take the reins as editor of Worcester Magazine, and Doreen Manning will be the paper's arts & entertainment editor. Outgoing editor-in-chief Noah Bombard tells the Telegram & Gazette that while he expected to lose his job as a result of the sale, he was "stunned" by the depth of the changes. "Cuts were expected, but nobody expected them at this level," he says. MORE: Read Bombard's farewell email.
Worcester Telegram & Gazette |
08-28-2008 8:30 am |
Industry News
How The Stranger Negotiated a Deadline-Day Power Outagenew
On Tuesday -- "the busiest day in The Stranger's production cycle" -- a blown transformer caused power in the paper's offices to go out. After being told that the power might not be restored until 6 am Wednesday, the staff of The Stranger had to take matters into their own hands. "We did something that has never happened before in The Stranger's history," writes Christopher Frizzelle in the appropriately-titled blog post, "How We Got This Week's Issue to the Printer." The staff ended up taking all of the equipment in the production department over to web development director Anthony Hecht's living room, where they wrapped the issue on time.
The Stranger |
08-21-2008 11:59 am |
Industry News
Robert Newman: Many of The Stranger's Covers are 'Ready for Framing'new
That's the veteran designer's take after browsing the Seattle alt-weekly's online cover archive. "The Stranger covers are like the cool punk version of The New Yorker, with illustrations, photographs and graphic design that are stand-alone visual statements, with lots of attitude and passion," Newman writes on the Society for Publication Design's blog. "Like The New Yorker, The Stranger covers are the visual voice of the publication, a dialogue each week between the paper and its readers."
The Society for Publication Design |
08-18-2008 11:18 am |
Industry News
After Inaugural Issue, Cleveland's Daily Looks at the New Scenenew
Publisher Matt Fabyan tells the Cleveland Plain-Dealer that his fears of newsroom tension between employees of former competitors Cleveland Free Times and Scene were unfounded. "After the first day, people have jelled really well," he says. The Plain-Dealer runs down some facts about the new paper, which debuted last week after the two papers were merged by new owners Times-Shamrock. The first issue came in at 100 pages, which was up from 72 in Free Times' last issue and 60 in Scene's last one. The new paper's circulation is 60,000, which is 10,000 more than pre-merger circulation totals for each paper, but down from a high of 100,000 a few years ago. Fabyan also tells the P-D that total staff loss was about 10 people. Each paper had about 25 staff members pre-merger, and the new paper comes in around 40, half from the old Free Times and half from the old Scene.
Cleveland Plain-Dealer |
07-28-2008 12:53 pm |
Industry News
At Comic-Con, Matt Groening Rips San Diego Readernew
As he's been doing for, "like, 15 years," the Simpsons creator and cartoonist behind the "Life in Hell" comic criticized the Reader while in San Diego for Comic-Con. The strip, which runs in LA Weekly and other alts, "used to be in the San Diego Reader, but they don't like portrayals of gay couples in their publication, like with the characters Akbar and Jeff," Groening said, according to Variety. "So now every year I come to Comic-Con and denounce the San Diego Reader." Groening was also asked if he had any plans to turn the strip into an animated series. He said it was possible but explained, "There is a satisfaction in working in a collaborative process in animation," but "there's another kind of creative fulfillment of doing something completely by yourself."
Broadcasting & Cable | Variety |
07-28-2008 9:11 am |
Industry News
Cleveland Scene Editor: The War is Over, and Neither Side Won or Lostnew
"A month ago we were enemies, hunkered down in bunkers and trying to will each other into starvation or surrender; today, we share the same fax machine and make small talk in the elevators," Frank Lewis says of the now-merged Cleveland Free Times and Scene. "And between deadlines and the seemingly endless details inherent in merging two operations -- packing and unpacking, integrating computer systems, finding the goddamn coffee -- there's just been no time to nurse grudges." He adds: "What matters most now is figuring out what to do with this rare opportunity -- in the Rust Belt, at least -- to leave behind the hand-to-mouth, week-to-week existence, the paranoia and bitterness, and figure out how to make the most of a more stable future."
Cleveland Scene |
07-24-2008 11:41 am |
Industry News
Emily Flake Talks About Cartooning and Her Creative Processnew
In a Q&A with The New Yorker's Cartoon Lounge blog, Flake, whose "Lulu Eightball" strip appears in many AAN papers and who also does spot illustrations for alts, says that, yes, Emily Flake is her real name. "All too real, my friend, all too real," she says. When asked to describe her typical day, she does thusly: "Drawing, pen chewing, staring into space, brooding, looking at websites of superior illustrators and dying a little inside, losing at computer solitaire, some more drawing, venturing out for coffee, seeing if a cigarette helps things along (things being 'ideas,' not 'fatal diseases,' God willing), some desultory fumblings at the Y, some more drawing and staring, dinner, lots of knitting, staring at the ceiling, merciful sleep."
The New Yorker |
07-24-2008 10:30 am |
Industry News
More on the Free Times/Scene Mergernew
"The idea, of course, is that with no competition to siphon off advertisers or keep ad prices rock-bottom, one alt-weekly might accomplish what the Free Times and Scene couldn't: make enough money to survive," Scene managing editor Joe Tone says of the recently announced merger. "And it's hard to bemoan the consolidation. Had they not become one, the two papers would have eventually become none." However, Tone notes that, for now, Cleveland "will lose some journalists." In addition to former editor Pete Kotz, who has already left for Nashville, Tone says staff writer Lisa Rab and food critic Elaine Cicora have departed. Frank Lewis, who last week was named the new paper's editor, reports on the Free Times blog that the other managers have been named. Sean Misutka and Joe Strailey have been plucked from the Scene to be ad sales manager and classified sales manager, respectively. And three additional Free Times managers have found homes at the new paper: Steve Antol is the circulation manager; Tim Divis is the business manager, and Steve Miluch is the production manager.
Scene | Cleveland Free Times |
07-07-2008 11:39 am |
Industry News
Universal Press Syndicate to Roll Out Animated Comics for News Sitesnew
Editor & Publisher |
07-02-2008 9:28 am |
Industry News
