AAN News
Veteran Cartoonist on Her Strip's Disappearance from Alt-Weekliesnew
In a lengthy Q&A with the Comics Reporter largely about her new book What It Is, Lynda Barry says she's "gone from being in over 70 papers to being in seven papers." She says consolidation has been the main factor, and that comics are often the first casualties. "My comic is often axed the minute the sale is complete. And I can understand why," Barry says. "The papers aren't as alternative or freaky as they once were, and having a comic strip in the paper that is often weird and sad just leaves editors with question marks over their heads. There was a time when it wasn't that strange, but now it is strange to have that kind of strip in a paper."
The Comics Reporter |
07-01-2008 9:18 am |
Industry News
LEO Weekly Takes 19 Metro Journalism Awards
LEO Weekly earned 19 awards at last Thursday's Society of Professional Journalists Metro Journalism awards ceremony in Louisville, including first place honors for Column Writing, Editorial Cartoon, Minority and Women's Affairs Reporting, and Reviews/Criticism. The paper swept the Column Writing and Reviews/Criticism categories.
(FULL STORY)
LEO Weekly Press Release |
06-30-2008 12:23 pm |
Press Releases
Wrapping Up the 31st Annual AAN Convention
A total of 400 people descended on the Pennsylvania Convention Center and the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown two weeks ago for the 2008 AAN Convention. The three-day event featured the usual mix of presentations and panels, food and booze, and business talk and gossip between alt-weekly staffers and industry types from across North America. AAN committees and staff mostly took care of the first item, while host paper Philadelphia City Paper had the second one covered, and attendees proved themselves more than capable of handling the third on their own.
(FULL STORY)
AAN |
06-19-2008 1:01 pm |
Association News
AAN Members Fare Well in the Lone Star Awardsnew
Alt-weeklies fairly dominated the newspaper divisions of the 2008 Lone Star Awards, the Texas-wide journalism contest sponsored by the Houston Press Club. In the over-100,000 circulation division, the Houston Press and Dallas Observer combined to take first, second and third places in the "Print Journalist of the Year" competition. The Observer won a total of five awards, while the Press took home more firsts (nine) and more awards overall than any other paper in the division. The Press finished first in these categories: Print Journalist of the Year, Photojournalist of the Year, Public Service, Business Story, General Commentary/Criticism, Feature Story (Internet-based), Opinion (Internet-based), Sports Photo, and Photo Package. In the under-100,000 newspaper division, the Fort Worth Weekly brought home more hardware than any other paper. That included five first-place trophies, in these categories: Feature Story, Investigative Reporting, Politics/Government, Business Story, and Student News. The awards were presented on June 6.
Houston Press Club (PDF file) |
06-18-2008 7:51 am |
Honors & Achievements
City Pages Wins 16 Minnesota SPJ Awardsnew
The Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists awarded City Pages top honors in eight categories last week, including newsroom-wide wins for Best Website and Best Special Section. The paper also finished first in the Business Feature; Photojournalism: Pictoral; Short News Feature; Sports Feature; Sports Spot News; and Use of Multimedia categories.
City Pages |
06-16-2008 8:38 am |
Honors & Achievements
City Pulse Publisher Says 'Thank You'
Berl Schwartz thanks the AAN membership for admitting City Pulse on Saturday in a letter to the editor. "This was our fourth time to apply,
and I am sure the membership committee was tired of looking at us, so
allow me to thank you on behalf of its members as well," he writes. He also says he's printing a banner to hang in the paper's office that quotes from a membership committee report on City Pulse: "It's still not perfect."
(FULL STORY)
AAN |
06-12-2008 8:18 am |
Letters to the Editor
Three AAN Papers Honored in Greater Bay Area Journalism Awardsnew
In the 31st annual awards competition, sponsored by the San Francisco Peninsula Press Club, the Palo Alto Weekly, SF Weekly, and San Francisco Bay Guardian all took home awards in the Newspapers: Non-Dailies division. Palo Alto Weekly -- and its online home, PaloAltoOnline.com -- won a total of nine awards, including first-place finishes in Analysis, Entertainment Review, and Page Design. The paper also finished in a second-place tie with SF Weekly for General Excellence. Speaking of the Weekly, it took home a total of four awards, including firsts in Sports Story and Technology Story, where it shared first place with the Bay Guardian. The Guardian also took home four awards total, with that shared first in Technology Story, plus firsts in Columns-News/Political and News Story.
San Francisco Peninsula Press Club |
06-10-2008 8:13 am |
Honors & Achievements
Los Angeles CityBeat Undergoes Makeover on its Fifth Anniversarynew
The paper will unveil a new design, logo and lineup of columns and features when it hits stands this week, LA Observed reports. Changes include: Content from Wonkette, a biweekly Neal Pollack column on sports, the return of editor Rebecca Schoenkopf's Commie Girl column, and a weekly news-in-review column from recently departed editor Steve Lowery. The redesign was overseen by new art director Paul Takizawa (formerly of LA Weekly), and CityBeat is throwing a celebratory party this Friday.
LA Observed |
06-10-2008 7:47 am |
Industry News
AAN and Medill Announce AltWeekly Awards Winners
At the 13th annual AltWeekly Awards luncheon in Philadelphia on Saturday, no one paper left with the lion's share of first-place awards. L.A. Weekly led the large-circulation division with three first-place awards, including wins for Jeffrey Anderson for Investigative Reporting and Nikki Finke for both Media Reporting/Criticism and Blog. And among the smaller papers, The Texas Observer led with three top prizes for Nate Blakeslee's investigative reporting, Jake Bernstein's long-form news and a special section dedicated to the late Molly Ivins.
(FULL STORY)
AAN Staff |
06-07-2008 7:21 pm |
Honors & Achievements
Tags: Design & Production, Editorial
Correction: Membership Committee Recommendations Included an Error
There was a significant error in the 2008 Membership Committee Recommendations posted to AAN.org last week. The Membership Committee did not recommend that the membership of Metro Pulse of Knoxville, Tenn., be affirmed. Metro Pulse was acquired by E.W. Scripps, a media company that owns the daily newspaper, business newspaper, Knoxville Magazine, and other publications in the Knoxville market. Per the AAN bylaws, ownership of member papers must reflect and advance the following values of the association:
The committee feels that Metro Pulse's new ownership situation is not in line with the bylaws and therefore does not recommend the paper for affirmation, and the committee's report has been amended as such.
- Competitive editorial and business environment, especially within local markets
- A multiplicity and diversity of media voices
- Independence from media conglomerates or other entities deemed detrimental to the interest of the alternative press and the maintenance of media diversity.
The committee feels that Metro Pulse's new ownership situation is not in line with the bylaws and therefore does not recommend the paper for affirmation, and the committee's report has been amended as such.
AAN |
06-05-2008 3:39 pm |
Association News
| Comments (1)
AAN Members Win 38 Pacific Northwest SPJ Awardsnew
The winners of the 2007 Society of Professional Journalists' Pacific Northwest Excellence in Journalism Awards were announced on Saturday night, and dozens of awards went to four alt-weeklies. Seattle Weekly led the way with 15 awards, including a total of eight first-place finishes in the Business, Education, Government, Investigative, Lifestyle, Science and Health, Special Section, and Sports categories. The Pacific Northwest Inlander took home 12 awards, including four first-place wins in the Consumer/Environmental Affairs, Humor, Page Design, and Social Issues categories. Eugene Weekly also won seven awards, and the Missoula Independent took home four.
Society of Professional Journalists Region 10 |
06-03-2008 8:55 am |
Honors & Achievements
Report: Interactivity Pushes Internet Ad Revenues Up 26 Percentnew
According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau's (IAB) Internet Advertising Report, conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers and released this month, internet advertising revenues in the United States totaled $21.2 billion for 2007, up from $16.9 billion in 2006. "This achievement is a testament to the continued vitality of interactive," IAB president and ceo Randall Rothenberg says. "Explosive innovation in the industry is providing marketers with new and unique ways to reach consumers."
MediaPost |
05-30-2008 8:34 am |
Industry News
AAN Launches 2008 Convention Community Blog
The convention's still a week away, but today AAN is unveiling this year's community blog, Philadelphia2008.aan.org. This marks the second year AAN is running a community blog for the convention. We'll be using the blog to share updates on the convention as well as recommend places to go in Philly, but the blog is also yours, and we welcome anyone attending the convention to join us and blog -- click here to register.
AAN |
05-29-2008 4:06 pm |
Association News
Membership Committee Recommends Two Papers for Admission to AAN
This year the committee recommends two of the 12 applying papers for admission to the association: City Pulse from Lansing, Mich., and Hawaii Island Journal from Hilo, Hawaii. The committee also recommends that the five papers that have changed ownership recently be re-affirmed as members of the organization. Those papers are: Metro Pulse, The Other Paper, Cityview, East Bay Express, and Boston's Weekly Dig. The committee's complete report is available in the Resource Library, along with a document featuring ownership reports on each of the applying papers and the papers up for review. The reports will also be available in printed form during this year's Convention in Philadelphia. Each AAN member paper can vote for or against the acceptance of an applying paper at the association's annual meeting, which will be held on the last day of the Convention, Saturday, June 7.
(FULL STORY)
Erin Sullivan |
05-29-2008 9:34 am |
Association News
AAN Launches AltWeeklies.com 2.0
After months of planning and preparation, the Association of Alternative
Newsweeklies today debuted the second iteration of AltWeeklies.com, the
association's story-sharing and content-portal website. The new site
incorporates many new types of content and organizes it all in a way that
makes it much easier for users to find what they are looking for. Read here to learn more about the changes.
(FULL STORY)
AAN |
05-22-2008 5:15 pm |
Association News
