AAN News
Metro Santa Cruz Adopts New Name and Design
The paper changed its name to Santa Cruz Weekly earlier this month because "the metropolitan flavor of the name never fit well with the character of Santa Cruz." Plus they were tired of being mistaken for the bus company. "At a transformative moment in the publishing industry, we've adopted a decidedly newspaper-y name to express our optimism about weekly print," wrote editor Traci Hukill and executive editor Dan Pulcrano in a note announcing the change to readers.
(FULL STORY)
Santa Cruz Weekly |
05-28-2009 11:37 am |
Industry News
Alt-Weeklies Make it into 'Best Music Writing 2009'new
James Parker's essay in the Boston Phoenix -- "Unauthorized! Axl Rose, Albert Goldman, and the renegade art of rock biography" -- has been selected for the annual book that the Phoenix says has "become, next to free Radiohead tickets, the rock critic's highest professional honor." Rebecca Schoenkopf's piece on Hall & Oates for the now-defunct LA CityBeat is also included in the book, which won't be out until October.
Boston Phoenix |
05-28-2009 9:05 am |
Honors & Achievements
Connecticut Alt-Weeklies Outsource This Week's Issue
When a news website in Pasadena made headlines last year for its decision to outsource City Hall coverage to reporters in India, the group managing editor of the Hartford Advocate, New Haven Advocate and Fairfield County Weekly wondered if his three alt-weeklies could do the same thing. While John Adamian's idea started as a joke, it quickly led to an actual exercise in outsourcing journalism -- and the results are this week's papers, which have been mostly generated by Indian freelancers. The papers say the experiment proves that outsourcing a local newspaper is possible, but not recommended. "Call us old-school, but we think good, old-fashioned shoe-leather journalism is worth the price," the staff writes in an editors' note. "Outsourcing could certainly fill pages, probably very cheaply, but what's lost is the very essence of local newspapers: presence."
(FULL STORY)
New Mass. Media Press Release |
05-27-2009 9:16 am |
Press Releases
The Coast Story Wins National Award, Leads to Actionnew
A story written by Matt Aikins about suicides off of Halifax's Macdonald Bridge has been named the best investigative piece by the Canadian Association of Journalists. The piece, "Adam's Fall," also recently won a gold Atlantic Journalism Award for enterprise reporting. Perhaps more importantly, the Halifax-Dartmouth Bridge Commission has decided to reverse course and install suicide barriers along the entire length of the bridge, though the commission denies that the Coast's story had any influence on its decision.
Canadian Association of Journalists |
05-27-2009 8:51 am |
Honors & Achievements
Two Tech Firms Build Tools to Protect Content from Digital Thievesnew
Two new tools "could potentially reshape how content is distributed and monetized on the web," Forbes reports. Scribd Store, from the company Scribd, uses a secure widget to help publishers control who is redistributing their content and keep bloggers and others from posting the raw text of an article. Meanwhile, the start-up Attributor asks publishers to upload all their content into the company's servers, which then search the web for the same strings of words.
Forbes |
05-26-2009 9:59 am |
Industry News
Georgia Straight Honored with National Journalism Award
A story in the Vancouver alt-weekly that exposed pharmaceutical companies' marketing tactics to persuade physicians to prescribe drugs has been named the top magazine article of the year by the Canadian Association of Journalists. Alex Roslin's story, "Pill Pushers," is also a finalist in the National Magazine Awards, along with several other pieces from the Straight. The alt-weekly has also been nominated for five Western Magazine Awards.
(FULL STORY)
Georgia Straight Press Release |
05-26-2009 8:24 am |
Press Releases
Boise Weekly Launches New Website
Boise Weekly Press Release |
05-26-2009 8:34 am |
Press Releases
Police Chief Calls L.A. Weekly Story 'Voodoo Reporting'new
Appearing on a local radio show this week, Los Angeles Police Department chief Bill Bratton went after a recent Weekly cover story that questioned his department's use of crime statistics -- especially Bratton's assurances that crime levels are on par with L.A.'s in 1956. As the chief and radio host segued out of a discussion on drug laws, Bratton cracked, "I think they were smoking a little weed when they wrote that article." He claimed the article was part of a vendetta the Weekly has against Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and added that he stood by the department's numbers. "It's kind of voodoo reporting," he said of the story.
L.A. Weekly |
05-22-2009 11:09 am |
Industry News
Metro Pulse Picks Up East Tennessee SPJ Chapter Awardsnew
The Knoxville alt-weekly was given 10 Golden Press Card Awards from the East Tennessee Society for Professional Journalists last week. Of those, six were first-place awards, for Feature Writing, Investigative Reporting, Personal Columns, Reviews/Criticism, Series/Package/Project Writing and Sports Reporting.
Metro Pulse |
05-22-2009 10:35 am |
Honors & Achievements
Arizona Alt-Weeklies Win Big in State Press Contestnew
Between them, Phoenix New Times and the Tucson Weekly won 26 excellence in journalism awards in the Arizona Press Club's annual contest. New Times took home 19 awards, including first-place wins for Arts Writing or Criticism; Blogging; Children, Families and Seniors Issues Reporting; Features Column Writing; Growth and Development Reporting; Public Safety Reporting; and Sports Enterprise Reporting. The Weekly won seven awards, including a first-place finish in the Film, Video and Television Writing or Criticism category.
The Arizona Press Club |
05-22-2009 8:05 am |
Honors & Achievements
Fast Forward Weekly Wins National Journalism Awardnew
On May 21, the Canadian Community Newspaper Association Better Newspapers Competition honored a team from Fast Forward with a best series award for "The Future of the Oilsands." This is the second consecutive year the paper has received the award.
Fast Forward Weekly |
05-21-2009 2:33 pm |
Honors & Achievements
Convention Early Registration Deadline is Friday
Be sure to register for the 32nd annual AAN Convention by the end of the day on Friday, May 22 to obtain the early registration rate. The discounted rate for members is $325 per person, and for non-members it's $425. On May 23, rates will increase by $50 per person. Click here.
AAN |
05-21-2009 9:56 am |
Association News
40 Percent of VVM's Web Traffic Comes from its Blogsnew
Village Voice Media new media director Bill Jensen says 40 percent of the company's pageviews are coming from the blogs on the newspapers' sites, up from 20 percent a year ago. He also tells TechCrunch VVM is on track to bring in $20 million in online revenues this year, nearly double from 2008. This figure, however, still represents barely more than 10 percent of VVM's revenues.
TechCrunch |
05-21-2009 8:28 am |
Industry News
Seven Days Hires Lauren Ober as New Staff Writer
Seven Days Press Release |
05-21-2009 1:27 pm |
Press Releases
Those Who Work to Exonerate Prisoners Lament Newsroom Cutsnew
The New York Times |
05-21-2009 8:33 am |
Industry News
Tags: Editorial, Management
