AAN News
We Media Fellowships Available
We Media Press Release |
11-29-2007 10:52 am |
Press Releases
Tags: Editorial, Management
Westword Food Writer's Debut Book Due Out Next Yearnew
Jason Sheehan's Whiskey Down: A Story of Love, Sex, Death and Kitchens will chronicle his days in kitchens across the country before he started writing about food rather than making it six years ago, the Rocky Mountain News reports. The manuscript was sold at auction to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an undisclosed amount. "I did really OK; I was very pleased," he says. "I'm one of those writers that hates all of my own stuff, but I really sort of like this book. I liked the chance of hanging out with the younger me again. Also, it's a fantastic book, and everybody should buy 10 or 12 copies."
The Rocky Mountain News |
11-28-2007 8:32 am |
Industry News
Phoenix New Times Case Was Bungled, Judge Saysnew
Judge Anna Baca said yesterday that special prosecutor Dennis Wilenchik failed to comply with the law when he issued four subpoenas against the paper, the Arizona Republic reports. Wilenchik neglected to notify the court that any of the four subpoenas had been issued and failed to notify the foreman of the grand-jury about two of them. The judge assessed no sanctions, since the subpoenas have been quashed. New Times founder and Village Voice Media executive editor Michael Lacey, who was arrested with Jim Larkin in the ensuing brouhaha, told reporters that the judge's conclusion validated what New Times has been saying. "It means we are continuing to peel back the layers of a very rotten onion," he said. "As we suspected and as we've written, this was a corrupt process." The paper has hired its own attorney to conduct an investigation into how the case was handled, according to the Republic.
The Arizona Republic |
11-27-2007 9:14 am |
Industry News
Web Publishing Conference Program Set
This year's conference will be held Jan. 30 to Feb. 1 in San Francisco, and is
designed for alt-weekly publishers, editors, electronic publishing
personnel, and any other employees with responsibility for their paper's
website. After two "big-picture" presentations by the New York Times' Nick Bilton and Tacoda Systems' Dave
Morgan, the conference will be dedicated to practical, nuts-and-bolts
programming on topics such as user-generated content, online video, blogging, tagging and social bookmarking, search-engine optimization,
web analytics, social networking, legal issues and the mobile internet. For more information, or to register, visit the conference website.
(FULL STORY)
AAN |
11-26-2007 12:56 pm |
Association News
Writers' Strike is Gold for Nikke Finke's 'Deadline Hollywood Daily'new
The L.A. Weekly columnist's website "has supplanted traditional media as a primary source of strike news" for many, the New York Times reports. She's even been invoked in picket line chants. "Variety and The Reporter stink. We get our news from Nikki Finke," Ugly Betty writer Bill Wrubel chanted. Since the strike began, Finke has written 142 posts about it, the Times reports. She said she had worked almost around the clock for three weeks, and had fallen asleep at the computer four times. "It's been brutal, but it's also been exhilarating because I love news," she says. "I love it -- a scoop is better than sex." More on Finke from Bloomberg News.
The New York Times |
11-26-2007 9:54 am |
Industry News
Tucson Weekly Offers Readers a Chance to Seek Presidency
After discovering the only thing a candidate has to do is fill out a notarized nomination form to get on Arizona's Feb. 5 presidential-primary ballot, Weekly writer Jim Nintzel decided to offer readers a chance to seek the presidency. And thus, Project White House, the paper's first-ever presidential-primary contest, was born. Readers are invited to send their campaign materials via mail or email to Project White House. If deemed newsworthy, the paper will give their campaigns some ink. Even if not, the Weekly may still help them get on the ballot by notarizing their nomination forms at no cost.
(FULL STORY)
Tucson Weekly Press Release |
11-21-2007 11:59 am |
Press Releases
Arkansas Times Editor Talks About the Impact of Blogging on the Paper
The Times made the jump to blogging in 2004 at a time when many AAN papers had yet to do so with the simply-named Arkansas Blog. Since then, its website, which started as a niche resource for its print readers, has evolved into a daily must-read for just about everyone in the state, from politicians to daily newspaper editors and, with the additional in-house blogs Rock Candy and Eat Arkansas, music and food junkies. AAN News recently spoke with editor and full-time blogger Max Brantley on what blogging has done for the Times.
(FULL STORY)
AAN News |
11-21-2007 10:57 am |
Industry News
Santa Barbara Independent Appeals Decision, Will Not Turn Over Photosnew
After being ordered by a Superior Court judge to turn over more than 300 photos of a March 14 crime scene, an attorney for the Independent says the paper plans to appeal the ruling. Meanwhile, photographer Paul Wellman is scheduled to appear in court next week for contempt proceedings, according to the Independent. "We think the protections provided by California reporters' privilege laws do not allow the state to turn newspapers into prosecuting agencies on their behalf, and so we are fighting this ruling," publisher Randy Campbell says. In other legal news, a judge on Monday allowed the copyright case brought against the Independent by the daily Santa Barbara News-Press to go to trial. However, the Indy says the ruling was mixed: Though the claim of copyright infringement survived and will see trial in January, the judge "entirely dismissed the News-Press' three claims of unfair business competition, intentional interference with business advantage, and negligent interference with business advantage." The final claim -- that the weekly stole trade secrets from the daily -- will be litigated at a later date.
Santa Barbara Independent |
11-21-2007 8:40 am |
Legal News
Daily Paper Tries To Get Shepherd Express Removed From Starbucksnew
"We were thrown out of Starbucks because of a deal the Journal Sentinel cut with Starbucks' regional office, where the Journal Sentinel demanded that the Shepherd Express be excluded from Starbucks newspaper racks," writes Express publisher and editor-in-chief Louis Fortis. The Sentinel-owned free weekly MKE then ran an ad claiming it was "the exclusive free weekly" available at Starbucks stores around Milwaukee. But a regional manager says "the decision as to whether a particular Starbucks carries the Shepherd will be at the discretion of each individual store manager." The controversy with the coffee giant comes as the paper celebrates its 25th anniversary. In this week's cover story, assistant editor Lisa Kaiser traces the Express' journey from "a monthly 'free expression magazine' by English majors at UW-Milwaukee" to what it is today.
Shepherd Express |
11-19-2007 12:15 pm |
Industry News
Judge Demands Records from Phoenix New Times Casenew
Documents showing how subpoenas were obtained and executed during the grand-jury investigation into New Times are missing from a court file, which has led Judge Anna Baca to order the Maricopa County Attorney's office to turn over those documents by Wednesday and appear at a hearing next Monday, the Arizona Republic reports. At issue is if there was more wrongdoing during the course of the investigation than is currently known. The County Attorney's office has already admitted that prosecutors didn't notify the grand-jury foreman and judge within 10 days of issuing subpoenas in the New Times case, which is required by Arizona law. New Times writer Stephen Lemons asks: "Could the subpoenas be missing because they might offer proof that Wilenchik did not play by the rules?" He points to a new column by Michael Lacey which says that the special prosecutor personally demanded he and Jim Larkin be arrested, asked for the arrests of the paper's attorneys, and "sought tens of millions of dollars in sanctions, fines that would have bankrupted New Times."
The Arizona Republic |
11-19-2007 8:36 am |
Industry News
Alt-Weekly Reporter Takes Issue With 'Hey, That's Not an Alt-Weekly'new
Dave Maass, currently a staff writer at the Santa Fe Reporter, doesn't think it was fair of AAN executive director Richard Karpel to single out Santa Fe's The Sun News in his inaugural column this week. "I've read the full piece four or five times now, and I can't find a single cogent argument why The Sun can't be an alternative newspaper," Maass writes. "What right does [Karpel] have to censor the words 'alternative' and 'newspaper' from being used, by his own admission, quite properly to describe The Sun? We're all standing up, speaking out, aren't we?" He adds: "Obviously, The Sun News isn't an alt-weekly in the contemporary conventional sense. But surely there's room in the taxonomy for them." More blog response to Karpel's column here, here, and here. UPDATE: Dave Maass has also posted a follow-up.
Maassive.com |
11-16-2007 11:28 am |
Industry News
Village Voice Reporter Tom Robbins Talks About Upending Mob Trialnew
Earlier this month, 10-year-old interview tapes that Robbins still had derailed the trial of Lindley DeVecchio, a former FBI agent accused of helping the mob commit murder. With the dust now settled, he talks to the Brooklyn Paper about what it felt like to be on the other side of a news story. "A reporter has got no business being a part of a news story, but sometimes you get dragged in kicking and screaming and that’s what happened here. I had no idea that my tapes were going to be the knockout punch for this case," he says. "I didn't much like being a part of the story, but I didn't know any way out of it either."
The Brooklyn Paper |
11-16-2007 11:08 am |
Industry News
Library Board Votes Not to Remove Phoenix New Timesnew
The decision handed down last night by the Chandler Public Library Board ended a mini-brouhaha in this Phoenix suburb. It all started a few months ago, when Larry Edwards made public his objection to New Times being available at a library branch shared by a high school. The board also ruled that George Carlin's audiobook When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? would stay in the library.
East Valley Tribune |
11-16-2007 7:56 am |
Industry News
More Websites Removing Paid Content Wallsnew
Washington Post |
11-16-2007 9:39 am |
Industry News
Alt-Weekly Report Leads to New Mexico's Divestment from Sudannew
Nine days after the Santa Fe Reporter revealed that the State Investment Office had $42.3 million tied up in "highest offender" corporations conducting business in Sudan, New Mexico became the 22nd state to commit to a divestment plan, according to the Reporter. "We are also sending a strong message to the corporate world that New Mexico will not accept investment profits that come at the expense of innocent lives lost to genocide," state investment officer Gary Bland says in a press release.
Santa Fe Reporter |
11-15-2007 1:47 pm |
Industry News
