AAN News
Nashville Scene Suspends Adult Ads During Reviewnew
In the wake of an ad salesperson's arrest on charges of promoting prostitution, the Scene has suspended the personal adult services section of its classified pages. During the suspension, incoming publisher Chris Ferrell will thoroughly review the paper's procedures for running such ads. The decision was made after an undercover police investigation resulted in the arrest of Nels Noseworthy, the Scene's adult ad salesperson, office assistant and receptionist. The probe has its roots in a crackdown on prostitution that began in the late '90s, writes Scene reporter Matt Pulle.
Nashville Scene |
12-22-2004 9:49 pm |
Industry News
Veteran's Wife Thanks "Soldier's Heart" Writer
12-17-2004 3:05 pm |
Letters to the Editor
Tags: Editorial
AAN Papers Cover Iraq War's Psychological Impact on Veterans
This week, almost two dozen Association of Alternative Newsweeklies member papers published "Soldier's Heart," an article by freelance reporter Dan Frosch that casts a critical eye on the Department of Veterans Affairs' ability to properly treat Iraq War veterans with serious psychological problems. The article will appear in more than 40 AAN papers in coming weeks. Many of the participating weeklies will supplement the article -- AAN's latest collaborative story project -- with additional reporting to reflect the issue's regional and local impact. The collective stories can be found in a dedicated section of AltWeeklies.com.
(FULL STORY)
Ryan Learmouth |
12-16-2004 12:47 pm |
Industry News
Washington City Paper Editor Dishes on State of Journalism, Altsnew
Interviewed by the Columbia Journalism Review's Campaign Desk, Washington City Paper editor Erik Wemple says the reports of his profession's death are greatly exaggerated. "I just am not buying into this journalistic apocalypse," he says. He thinks a lot of papers, including the one he edits, serve their communities well. Turning a critical eye on alt-weeklies, Wemple cites predictability as the root of "whatever malaise might exist" in the industry. "Alt-weeklies do descend from a certain tradition where it's no surprise that the editorial is slamming Bush or supporting Kerry or Nader," he says.
CJR Campaign Desk |
12-13-2004 1:54 pm |
Industry News
Staff Departures Raise Questions About L.A. Weekly's Visionnew
Recently departed L.A. Weekly writers like education reporter Howard Blume have been left baffled as to why they were fired or forced out. Pasadena Weekly reporter Joe Piasecki delves into changes at the 26-year-old Los Angeles alternative weekly that have led to staff anxiety and the filing of union grievances. Writer and union shop steward Erin Aubry Kaplan says the overall emphasis of the paper has gone to "softer stuff," but Editor-in-Chief Laurie Ochoa denies there is any trend toward "fluffier features and blander politics."
Pasadena Weekly |
12-09-2004 9:26 pm |
Industry News
Broad Vision, Focused Effort Yield Chicago Reader's New Look
Predictability took a tumble at the Chicago Reader Sept. 17 when the paper adopted a fresh new design. Freelance writer Nora Ankrum tells the story behind the 33-year-old paper's transformation, accomplished through a collaboration between the paper's staff and Spanish design firm Jardí + Utensil. While some readers may miss the old Reader, advertisers say they like the way the new look captures readers' eyes.
(FULL STORY)
Nora Ankrum |
12-09-2004 12:50 pm |
Industry News
New Weekly Launches in North Carolinanew
According to the Outer Banks Sentinel, Yes! Weekly, "an alternative newspaper" that "will focus on the cultural, political and artistic aspects of [Greensboro, N.C.]" is set to begin publication in January 2005. The paper is a venture of Womack Newspapers, Inc., which is a division of Womack Publishing Co., a publisher of 21 papers -- two of them dailies -- in Virginia, North Carolina and Colorado. Yes! will be distributed free to more than 300 racks and business locations throughout the city.
Outer Banks Sentinel |
12-07-2004 4:19 pm |
Industry News
Tags: Editorial
2005 Alternative Newsweekly Awards Contest Site Is Launched
Ruth Hammond |
12-07-2004 5:26 pm |
Association News
Film Critic Roger Ebert Joins Long Island Press
The Press Becomes the Area's Only News Publication to Publish Ebert's Reviews
(FULL STORY)
12-03-2004 11:08 am |
Press Releases
Tags: Editorial, Long Island Press
Film Based on Stranger Column Accepted to Sundancenew
Robinson Devor's film Police Beat, which chronicles a week in the life of an African-born Seattle bike cop, has been accepted for the 2005 Sundance Film Festival Dramatic Competition, reports the Seattle Times. Devor co-wrote the film with Charles Mudede, whose Police Beat column in The Stranger provided its inspiration. Zimbabwe-born Mudede would visit police precincts, scan the log for interesting stories, interview the cops involved and incorporate their stories into his column. The film was selected into the prestigious competition from more than 700 submissions. (Free registration required.)
Seattle Times |
12-01-2004 1:15 pm |
Industry News
Dailies Padded Circ Figures to Keep Ad Rates Highnew
The trouble started in 1998, when the Chicago Sun-Times broke ground on a new printing press on the south side of Chicago. The start-up process was a "nightmare," the publisher said. The press malfunctioned, causing the paper to hit the streets late and leading to mass subscription cancellations.
Washington Post |
11-30-2004 12:40 pm |
Industry News
Post-Election Stranger Cover Becomes a Collector's Itemnew
Requests for the Nov. 11 edition of The Stranger are pouring into the Seattle alt-weekly's offices, largely from readers who found a degree of post-election solace in the issue's unorthodox cover, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The cover features text in a series of colored bars that reads "Do not despair," before reassuring readers that they're part of a "diverse, dynamic, and progressive … urban archipelago" that voted overwhelmingly for Kerry. "People really responded to it," says editor Dan Savage, who wrote the cover text. Incoming requests for the issue number around 500, and that's just the beginning. "People want T-shirts, people want posters," says Savage.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer |
11-30-2004 12:37 pm |
Industry News
Boston's Phoenix and Weekly Dig Set to Tanglenew
Steve Bailey of the Boston Globe looks at the impending battle between Boston Phoenix and Boston's Weekly Dig. He writes that "others have tried to take on [Phoenix publisher Stephen] Mindich and failed," and that the owners of Boston and Philadelphia magazines "have bought the five-year-old Weekly Dig with plans to pour in the resources and turn up the heat on the Phoenix." Bailey paints a picture of Old Guard vs. Youth Movement, of Champion vs. Challenger, before surmising, "More newspapers are better than fewer newspapers."
Boston Globe |
11-19-2004 1:28 pm |
Industry News
Membership Applications Available for 2005
AAN Staff |
11-12-2004 12:23 pm |
Association News
News & Review Launches Counterattack on the Sacramento Beenew
Sacramento News & Review president and CEO Jeff von Kaenel was sick of the Sacramento Bee offering advertisers huge discounts in Ticket, the daily's arts and entertainment weekly insert, reports Sacramento Business Journal. So he sent out 250 letters to Bee advertisers that weren't getting discounts -- that is, Bee advertisers that hadn't been poached away from the News & Review -- citing the cheaper rates and asking, "Are you paying this?" Von Kaenel tells SBJ that he sees the discounts as the Bee's attempt to "take us out," and that the daily is "engaging in practices I believe are suspect."
Sacramento Business Journal |
11-11-2004 5:43 pm |
Industry News
