AAN News

Web Publishing Conference Early Registration Deadline Approaching

The early deadline is this Friday, Jan. 11; registration rates will increase by $50 the following day. The conference is slated for Jan. 30-Feb. 1 at the Hotel Kabuki in San Francisco, and will feature programming on topics ranging from online metrics to social networking. In addition, two separate open discussions, one for editors and the other for web-tech personnel, will be added to the program next week after AAN conducts a survey of registrants to determine when to schedule them. You can register online by clicking here.
AAN  |  01-10-2008  12:45 pm  |  Association News

Sale of Style Weekly Explored

As we noted yesterday, Landmark Communications, which owns both Style Weekly and Port Folio Weekly, has hired investment bankers to explore the possibility of selling the company's holdings, which include more than 100 publications and other properties, including The Weather Channel. "Although I was disappointed to hear the Battens were exploring a sale, our readers will continue to get the best of in-depth, local reporting on news, arts and culture," Style editor Jason Roop says in a press release. Publisher Lori Collier Waran concurs, noting that readers, advertisers and other business partners can expect business as usual. "We just celebrated our 25th anniversary, and we're still going strong." (FULL STORY)
Style Weekly Press Release  |  01-04-2008  11:33 am  |  Press Releases

Port Folio Weekly & Style Weekly Parent Co. May Go Up for Salenew

Landmark Communications, which owns those two Virginia AAN member papers, has hired JP Morgan and Lehman Brothers to "to assist in exploring strategic alternatives, including the possible sale of the company's businesses," Landmark's vice chairman tells the Roanoke Times. The company's 2006 sales figures were $1.75 billion, and it employs about 12,000 people at more than 100 publications and other media properties including The Weather Channel, the Times reports.
The Roanoke Times  |  01-03-2008  8:48 am  |  Industry News

Folio Weekly Staffer Recounts Being Shot in Robbery Attemptnew

Just after midnight on Dec. 29, graphic designer Dennis Ho was shot in the foot in an apparent robbery attempt. He didn't need surgery, lost no toes, and will return to work Jan. 9. Ho recounts his experience today in a blog post. "To have to use my own hands to inspect the rest of my body for gunshot wounds while knowing that there was a real possibility they were there ... that was a feeling more terrifying than anything I've ever experienced," he writes. "I will never -- never -- forget that feeling."
Folio Weekly  |  01-02-2008  11:22 am  |  Industry News

Shepherd Express and Wehaa.com Announce Exclusive Partnership

The independent alternative weekly newspaper, Shepherd Express, formed an exclusive partnership with Wehaa.com to better serve its online readers with a completely interactive and searchable digital reproduction of weekly issues. (FULL STORY)
Shepherd Express Press Release  |  12-18-2007  8:39 am  |  Press Releases

Two Veteran Staffers to Leave AAN

AAN director of sales and marketing Roxanne Cooper and her assistant, Tiffany Kildale, resigned last week after accepting new positions with different employers. Cooper will be leaving AAN in February to take over as associate publisher of the Philadelphia City Paper, and Kildale departs next month to assume the position of meeting coordinator at the Chemical Producers & Distributors Association in Washington, D.C. (FULL STORY)
AAN  |  12-17-2007  5:28 pm  |  Association News

Ben Eason Weighs in on the State of Creative Loafingnew

"While it is easy to blame mean and nasty CEOs for trimming budgets, the fact is that our journalism, advertising and our content needs to be and are being re-conceived," Creative Loafing CEO Ben Eason says in a memo to employees leaked to Poynter's Jim Romenesko. In the memo, Eason tells his employees that most of the post-merger integration -- including staffing decisions -- of the Chicago Reader and Washington City Paper into the CL family is complete. "I'm very pleased with how the new company has come together," he says. "We are positioned well to take advantage of the future."
Romenesko Memos  |  12-17-2007  10:08 am  |  Industry News

Oklahoma Gazette Loses Power, Publishes With Help of Generator

The paper lost electricity early on Monday, Dec. 10, just hours before the always-hectic press day. But this week's issue still came out, thanks to the hard work of Gazette employees ... and a generator. "We were first in line for a [generator] rental but weren't fully functional until nine hours later," associate publisher Jeffri-Lynn Dyer says. "We aren't returning it, though. With the next storm coming, we might need it next press day!" According to the latest forecast, a new storm is expected to bring two to four inches of snow heading into this weekend. The Gazette's rented generator is on standby in the paper's parking lot. (FULL STORY)
Oklahoma Gazette Press Release  |  12-14-2007  4:30 pm  |  Industry News

Is the Alt-Weekly Market for Comics and Illustration Drying Up?new

"If you stop and think about it, it's hard to think of anyone who's broken out of that once-vital corner of the comics world in a dozen years," writes the Comics Reporter. Reacting to the news that Washington City Paper will stop using freelancer Robert Ullman to illustrate the Savage Love column, the Reporter wonders if the alt-weekly market for illustrators, cartoonists, and comic artists has "begun its final decline" as papers have to focus more on bottom-line pressures. "I think that's the way it's trending, definitely, but I'm not ready to pull a sheet over the corpse quite yet," Ullman says. "I don't know, I would think that with all the conglomeration that's going on with alt-weeklies these days, that there'd be more money for things like illustration, not less."
The Comics Reporter  |  12-13-2007  9:49 am  |  Industry News

Membership of Five Papers Up for Review in 2008

Due to a 2004 change in the association's bylaws, five papers that have taken on new majority owners in the past two years will have their AAN membership reviewed in 2008. The Membership Committee will evaluate The Other Paper, Boston's Weekly Dig, East Bay Express, Metro Pulse, and Cityview, and will issue a report to members a week before the 2007 annual convention. To retain their membership, each paper must be affirmed by at least one-third of the members voting at the annual meeting in Philadelphia, which is tentatively scheduled for June 7. (FULL STORY)
AAN  |  12-12-2007  11:46 am  |  Association News

Tribune Co. Daily Sells Valley Advocatenew

The Hartford Courant announced plans Tuesday to sell the Valley Advocate, an alt-weekly covering western Massachusetts, to Newspapers of New England Inc., which owns newspapers in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Editor & Publisher reports that the sale lets the Courant focus its attention on its properties in Connecticut. The Advocate will continue to share content and do cross-market sales with the remaining alt-weeklies the Courant purchased in 1999 from New Mass. Media: the Hartford Advocate, the New Haven Advocate and Fairfield County Weekly. The sale is expected to close later this month; terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Hartford Courant | Editor & Publisher  |  12-12-2007  8:14 am  |  Industry News

Early Registration Deadline for AAN West is Tomorrow

This Friday is the deadline for early registration for this year's AAN West conference, to be held in San Francisco Feb. 1-2. For AAN members, early registration is $75 per person (non-members pay $150). After Friday, both of those rates go up $25 per person. You can register online here. In addition to the four streams of programming (Business, Design & Production, Editorial, and Sales), the AAN West Planning Committee has some parties planned that are sure to please. On Friday night, the North Coast Journal will host a cocktail reception featuring the best in Northern California wine, cheese, and beer. On Saturday night, the San Francisco Bay Guardian will throw down at Element Lounge. Be sure to check the AAN West website for full details on events and programming, as well as updates as we get closer to February. The registration deadline for the Web Publishing Conference is Jan. 4.
AAN  |  12-06-2007  8:58 am  |  Association News

Keith Olbermann Channels Bill O'Reilly, via Tom Tomorrownew

Taking a page from New York Mayor Fiorella LaGuardia, who famously read comics on the radio during the city's 1945 newspaper strike, Olbermann last week read a two-page Tom Tomorrow cartoon from The Village Voice out loud on Countdown. The comic, "Bill O'Reilly's Very Useful Advice for Young People, as Channeled by Vile Left-Wing Smear Merchant Tom Tomorrow," features 16 helpful hints for the "young generation." As far as we know, this is the only time the first-ever recipient of AAN's Molly Ivins Award has had the opportunity to reference his own penis size on air.

MSNBC  |  12-05-2007  2:25 pm  |  Industry News

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