AAN News
Creative Loafing Auction Setnew
A federal bankruptcy judge scheduled the auction for Aug. 25 after Creative Loafing CEO Ben Eason and the chain's largest creditor agreed on a reorganization plan, reports Creative Loafing Tampa's Wayne Garcia. Under the plan, Atalaya Capital Management LP will take a $19 million haircut, writing down the value of the loan it made two years ago to Eason to $12 million. Atalaya still plans to battle Eason and his allies for ownership of the company and has already put in a $2 million "stalking horse offer" that constitutes "the first bid up during the Aug. 25 equity auction," according to Garcia.
Creative Loafing (Tampa) |
07-13-2009 6:02 pm |
Industry News
Some D.C. Residents Cry Foul Over Washington City Paper's Covernew
The cover of this week's paper -- with the provocative headline, "You put me out in Denver 'cause I wouldn't suck your dick" -- has some district residents upset, the Washington Post reports. City Paper says the city's Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs has received several calls complaining about the cover, which features a photo of councilman and former mayor Marion Barry with his arm around an ex-girlfriend who has accused him of stalking her. (The quote was taken from a recording of a confrontation between Barry and the ex-girlfriend.) "Some people are going to find that vulgar -- that's inevitable," editor Erik Wemple says. "If they find it vulgar, they can complain. It's worth putting it out there, and it's the truth. Sometimes the truth is vulgar." Publisher Amy Austin tells the Post that the negative reaction has been "much less than I expected," and that only three distribution spots have called to say they wouldn't display the paper while one has called to ask for more copies.
Washington Post | Washington City Paper |
07-10-2009 10:08 am |
Industry News
Why Are There So Few Women Cartoonists?new
The uphill battle that female cartoonists face is the main topic of discussion in Daryl Cagle's two-part video interview of alt-cartoonists Mikhaela Reid ("The Boiling Point") and Jen Sorensen ("Slowpoke"). "Maybe women are just too smart to get into a profession that's in so much trouble," Reid says before adding: "But I really think that's just not it at all." They both say that within the alt genre, the male cartoonists have been "totally supportive" of female artists and also briefly touch on the mainstreaming of alt-cartoonists within the cartooning world and state of the alt-weekly industry. Sorensen says she's lost about one-third of her clients, but she remains hopeful. "The well-run alternative newspapers will survive," she says.
Cagle.com |
07-10-2009 8:05 am |
Industry News
Didja Know About AltWeeklies.com Widgets? [members only]
Richard Karpel |
07-09-2009 8:14 pm |
AAN Staff Blog
Washington City Paper: 'Marion Barry Killed Our Web Server'new
Yesterday City Paper posted a series of voicemails in which notorious former mayor and current councilman Marion Barry "alternately cajoles and spurns" (as the Washington Post put it) an ex-girlfriend who is charging Barry with stalking her. The clips and the accompanying cover story -- which feature classic one-liners like "You put me out in Denver 'cause I wouldn't suck your dick" -- quickly went viral, causing some issues for City Paper's server. "Marion Barry killed our web server," the paper tweeted yesterday afternoon. "[W]e're working on bringing it back to life."
DCist | Washington City Paper |
07-09-2009 9:35 am |
Industry News
Westword Food Writer's Book is Releasednew
Jason Sheehan's Cooking Dirty: A Story of Life, Sex, Love and Death in the Kitchen was released late last month by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Sheehan says the book is about "the often wonderful, sometimes terrible things that result from sticking four or five or ten poorly socialized men together for hours at a stretch in a small steel box filled with knives and fire." National Public Radio is just one of the media outlets to have sung the book's praises thus far, including it on its summer nonfiction reading list (and running a lengthy excerpt). "If chefs are the new rock stars, Jason Sheehan is like a grunge guitarist of the old school," John Freeman writes.
Westword |
07-08-2009 11:04 am |
Industry News
Local Talk Radio Fixture Takes Her Show to Pittsburgh City Papernew
Lynn Cullen is re-launching her talk show "Lynn Cullen Live" on City Paper's website. The show will stream live each weekday at 10 am and also be archived and downloadable from the site. Cullen left WAMO-AM this spring when the pending sale of WAMO and its sister stations was announced. "When we read about WAMO exiting their format, we thought it might be an interesting concept to have Lynn be a part of our website," City Paper publisher Michael Frischling says.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |
07-08-2009 8:48 am |
Industry News
Videos from AAN Convention Now Available
AAN staff experimented with digital video at this year's convention and managed to capture several presentations and panels in reasonably presentable form. The videos are now available for viewing in the members-only AAN.org Resource Library.
AAN |
07-07-2009 4:17 pm |
Association News
Sarah Palin's Attorney Takes a Swing at the Village Voicenew
Thomas Van Flein issued a four-page letter on Saturday denying there was a brewing scandal behind Palin's decision to resign her gubernatorial office a day earlier. What's more, the statement put the media on notice that the Palin team would file defamation lawsuits against media outlets that repeated allegations about a possible scandal centered around a building contractor with close ties to the Palins. In a footnote, Van Flein points out these "insinuations" were published in the "left wing Village Voice" in an October 2008 story by Wayne Barrett. The piece examined links between Palin and several contractors who worked on a sports complex as part of a deeper look at Palin's previous record. "Van Flein's statement -- which derides 'modern journalism' for 'abhorring' due diligence and factchecking -- is actually longer than the section of the Voice story that examined the connections around the complex," Barrett writes, "but he does not challenge a single fact actually presented in our story."
The Village Voice |
07-07-2009 1:30 pm |
Industry News
Long Island Press Editor Steps Down
Robbie Woliver tells AAN News he left the Press last month to focus on his own startup company and to devote more time to promoting his recent book Alphabet Kids.
AAN News |
07-07-2009 11:52 am |
Industry News
Novelist Remembers the Early Days of the Seattle Weeklynew
"When David Brewster started the Weekly, I thought it was a fabulous idea because Seattle didn't have anything like the New Yorker but it's a rather sophisticated city," Alan Furst told The Stranger in an interview last month. Furst says that when Brewster approached him about writing for the paper, he was told he could write about anything, so he decided he wanted to write a football column. "The Nordstrom family had just bought the franchise for the Seahawks, and they brought in and unwrapped a brand-new team and there I was up in the press box, eating free hot dogs. It was great!"
The Stranger |
07-07-2009 8:42 am |
Industry News
Alts 'More Nimble' Than Dailies When it Comes to Social Medianew
That's the impression that BNET's David Weir got at last month's AAN Convention. "As those big guys crumble, it's an opportunity for us," an unnamed publisher tells him. "We know that they are stuck halfway between print and the web. And now they have to figure out what to do about mobile. They have far more resources than we do, but they also are much more bureaucratic."
BNET |
07-06-2009 2:19 pm |
Industry News
LEO Weekly Fares Well at Local SPJ Awardsnew
The Louisville alt-weekly won a total of 18 awards in the 2009 Metro Journalism Awards, sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists Louisville Chapter. LEO, which was competing in the Metro Newspapers/Wire Services division, finished first in five categories: Column Writing, Feature Photography, Feature Writing, Health Reporting and Review/Criticism (which it swept).
SPJ Louisville |
07-06-2009 9:04 am |
Honors & Achievements
Thoughts on the Tucson Convention [members only]
Richard Karpel |
07-02-2009 3:41 pm |
AAN Staff Blog
Worcester Magazine Debuts New Design and Format, Shortens Name
The Massachusetts alt-weekly unveils a new format today with more color pages and a stapled bind. Savvy readers may also notice that the publication's title is five letters shorter: Worcester Mag is the official title of the paper now. "We are embracing the abbreviation so many readers have used for years," publisher Gareth Charter says. "We are not a magazine in the traditional sense of that term. We are an alternative news voice; in print once a week and online 24/7."
(FULL STORY)
Worcester Mag Press Release |
07-02-2009 11:28 am |
Press Releases
