AAN News
Woman Suing the Nashville Scene Found Not Guilty of Prostitutionnew
Former stripper Michelle Peacock was exonerated by a jury of all charges on Tuesday, the Nashville Scene reports. Peacock is seeking at least $25,000 in compensatory and punitive damages from reporter P.J. Tobia, the Scene, and its parent company in a defamation suit over an October 2007 story which cited an arrest report detailing the alleged prostitution.
Nashville Scene |
11-06-2008 8:50 am |
Legal News
Ex-Portland Mercury Editor Charged with Stealing McCain Lawn Signsnew
Phil Busse, the former Mercury managing editor and one-time Portland mayoral candidate, was charged with misdemeanor theft for stealing McCain campaign lawn signs in Minnesota. Busse was in the state for a visiting professorship at St. Olaf College, and admitted his deeds in a Huffington Post blog last Thursday titled "Confessions of a Lawn Sign Stealer." He has since resigned from St. Olaf, the Oregonian reports. "I have no problems with taking personal responsibility for stupid actions," says Busse, who faces up to 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. "I certainly regret I took down the signs."
The Oregonian |
11-06-2008 8:42 am |
Industry News
Fairfield County Weekly Combines Offices with New Haven Advocatenew
To save costs in an ever-tightening economy, two of the three New Mass. Media papers will now share office space in New Haven. Staff members have been given laptops and cellphones and will seemingly be traveling in the Fairfield County area -- about 20 miles from New Haven -- quite a bit.
Fairfield County Weekly |
11-05-2008 11:56 am |
Industry News
Philadelphia City Paper Hosts Election Day Live Photoblog
In an real-time experiment with user-generated content, today City Paper is hosting a reader-submitted photostream on its website to capture all the local Election Day action. "Trouble at the polls? Take a pic. Long lines at your polling place? Take a pic. Thugs trying to intimidate voters? Take a pic," says editor-in-chief Brian Howard. "Get snapping. Then get submitting. You're all poll watchers tomorrow." The photos will be on display at City Paper's homepage and at citypaper.net/electionphotos. Readers can upload photos via the paper's Flickr stream at www.flickr.com/groups/cp_election.
(FULL STORY)
Philadelphia City Paper Press Release |
11-04-2008 9:11 am |
Press Releases
Biz Paper Weighs in on the Providence Phoenix's 'Journalistic Niche'new
As the Phoenix celebrates its 30th anniversary, Providence Business News looks at how the alt-weekly is flourishing "at a time when daily newspapers in Rhode Island and elsewhere are struggling." One University of Rhode Island professor says the paper provides a function "critical to political life in this state," and Phoenix associate publisher Steve Brown says the paper has succeeded by "knowing [its] audience and sticking with them." Ty Davis, who launched the paper (as The New Paper) in 1978, says he's not sorry that he sold his paper to the Boston Phoenix in 1988. "My objective was to give Rhode Island a solid alternative weekly," he says. "I succeeded and, from that standpoint, I have no regrets."
Providence Business News |
11-04-2008 8:51 am |
Industry News
Why Isn't Print Media Going After Google?new
The Century Foundation |
11-04-2008 10:26 am |
Industry News
The Stranger Parody Lights Up the Right-Wing Blogospherenew
On Thursday, the Seattle alt-weekly published a piece on its website parodying the annual "houses with the best Halloween/Christmas decorations" article so often employed by daily and community papers. But the story, "Hell Houses," featured homes displaying McCain/Palin yard signs instead of decorations, and it included the addresses. Two days later, it "exploded on right-wing blogs." The paper reports that the piece "received over 1,300 comments, including dozens and dozens of death threats against our staff, many directing readers to incorrect addresses." That caused The Stranger to pull the story, but today it has republished it, with the addresses redacted. More from KOMO-TV.
The Stranger |
11-03-2008 3:16 pm |
Industry News
Michael Swanger is Out as Cityview Editor
Swanger's last day at the editorial helm of the Des Moines, Iowa, alt-weekly was Friday. He says he will remain as Cityview's freelance entertainment editor. Publisher Shane Goodman tells AAN News that for now he'll pull double-duty and edit the paper.
AAN News |
11-03-2008 10:32 am |
Industry News
Anthrax Prankster Who Hit News & Review in '07 Seems to be Backnew
Marc Keyser is a familiar name to the staff of the Sacramento News & Review. Keyser, who is suspected of mailing out 120 hoax anthrax letters nationwide last week, first sent a hoax anthrax package to the N&R in January 2007. He was questioned and warned by FBI agents, but not arrested, after he mailed a cylinder marked "anthrax" to the alt-weekly because he wanted publicity for a novel he had written.
The Sacramento Bee via the Seattle Times |
11-03-2008 9:19 am |
Industry News
Correction: Another AAN Member Was Honored at California Press Awards
AAN News has been informed that we missed the fact that the Santa Barbara Independent won several California Newspaper Publishers Association awards when we reported on the awards last week. Indy publisher Randy Campbell notes that the press association for some reason omitted the "Santa Barbara" from the paper's name and simply called it The Independent. The alt-weekly won five awards this year, including first-place finishes in Feature Photo and Investigative/Enterprise
Reporting.
AAN News |
11-03-2008 8:06 am |
Honors & Achievements
Will Swaim Named Publisher of LA CityBeat
Will Swaim has been named publisher of LA CityBeat and New Angeles Magazine, effective Nov. 10. Swaim was most recently the founding editor and publisher of The District Weekly, a non-AAN weekly in Long Beach. Prior to that, he was OC Weekly's founding editor in 1995, and went on to become publisher of that paper as well, before stepping down in January 2007. At CityBeat, he'll be reunited with former Weekly colleague Rebecca Schoenkopf, who is now CityBeat's editor. "LA CityBeat and New Angeles are terrific publications," Swaim says in a release. "I'm thrilled to have this chance to use what I've learned in Orange County and Long Beach to help them reach their enormous potential."
(FULL STORY)
Southland Publishing Press Release |
10-31-2008 3:16 pm |
Press Releases
Boston's Weekly Dig Prints Two Mock Covers for 2012 Election
You read that right -- 2012. The Dig published two covers this week imitating the look and feel of Boston's two dailies, the Globe and the Herald, which predict the headlines four years into prospective McCain and Obama administrations. Managing editor Laura Dargus says the idea was to provide a little humor to the overwrought election. "I'm so sick of this already, so it seemed natural to just move beyond 2008 and have fun with 2012 before it, too, becomes overdone," Dargus says in a release.
(FULL STORY)
Boston's Weekly Dig Press Release |
10-31-2008 2:52 pm |
Press Releases
L.A. Weekly Lays Off A Handful of Staffersnew
LA Observed is reporting that the Weekly has laid off longtime editor and columnist Marc Cooper, managing editor Sharan Street, copy chief David Caplan, staff writer Matthew Fleischer, senior designer Laura Steele and assistant to the editor Pandora Young.
LA Observed |
10-31-2008 2:39 pm |
Industry News
Alt-Weeklies Resoundingly Say: Vote Obama
An informal email survey and website scan of AAN's 123 American papers finds that 57 have made presidential endorsements this year, and all of them are endorsing Barack Obama. It marks quite a difference from 2000, when a similar survey found alt-weeklies' endorsements evenly split between Al Gore and Ralph Nader. Many papers choose not to endorse, for a variety of reasons, but some of those papers jumped into the fray for the first time this year.
(FULL STORY)
AAN News |
10-31-2008 10:21 am |
Industry News
Tags: Editorial, Management
Last Year's Arrest of VVM Execs Becomes Campaign Issuenew
Tim Nelson, the Democrat challenging Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, is running a radio ad accusing Thomas of ordering the October 2007 arrests of Jim Larkin and Michael Lacey because they reported in Phoenix New Times that they had been served a sweeping subpoena from a special prosecutor demanding information about the paper's online readers, Editor & Publisher reports. The ad says Thomas is responsible for "arresting journalists in the dark of night in front of their families because of what they published," and accuses Thomas of using KGB tactics. (New Times reports that Thomas tried to get the commercial pulled from local airwaves.) "Make no mistake about it: the New Times subpoenas and arrests were a massive abuse of power and the public trust," Nelson said at a press conference yesterday. "They have brought ridicule to our county and its justice system."
Editor & Publisher | Phoenix New Times |
10-31-2008 9:34 am |
Industry News
