AAN News
How I Got That Story: Donna Ladd
In the ninth installment of this year's "How I Got That Story" series, Jackson Free Press editor Donna Ladd discusses her award-winning feature on the Seale family, which has long ties to the Ku Klux Klan, but has tried to ameliorate its past. She talks to St. John Barned-Smith about how they found the story, how her upbringing in Mississippi informs her work, and how she connects with her sources. "I find the best way is to just have absolute interest in what they're saying," Ladd says. "I have no judgment when I'm sitting in front of someone. I am a sponge.
(FULL STORY)
AAN News |
10-16-2008 1:18 pm |
Association News
Court Filings Shed Light on Creative Loafing's Financesnew
According to a case management summary (pdf) filed in Creative Loafing's bankruptcy proceedings on Monday, revenues are off at the six-paper alt-weekly chain. Atlanta Magazine's Steve Fennessy reports that when CL was looking for financing to purchase the Chicago Reader and Washington City Paper, it projected the expanded company would see revenues of $43 million in fiscal year 2008. But the court filing says that revenue in FY08, ending June 30, 2008, was $35 million, and predicts that sales in the first quarter of FY09 will be only $3.5 million. In other CL bankruptcy news, Washington City Paper has published a statement from one of the company's lenders, Atalaya, which says the bankruptcy filing was "unfortunate and unnecessary," and assures "all interested parties that Atalaya has no intention of attempting to shut down the business." MORE: City Paper editor Erik Wemple talks to the George Washington University student paper The Hatchet about the changes in store as the paper shifts focus.
Atlanta Magazine | Washington City Paper |
10-16-2008 11:43 am |
Industry News
Tucson Weekly Wins Several State Press Awardsnew
The Weekly won five editorial awards in this year's Arizona Newspapers Association's Better Newspapers Contest, including first place finishes for Best Lifestyle Feature, Best News Story and Best Sustained Coverage.
Tucson Weekly |
10-16-2008 8:23 am |
Honors & Achievements
Gambit Weekly Publisher, Editor Receive Anti-Defamation League Awardnew
Gambit publisher Margo DuBos and her husband, political editor Clancy DuBos, will be honored with the Anti-Defamation League's A.I. Botnick "Torch of Liberty Award" at a Dec. 14 dinner in New Orleans. "Under the direction of Margo and Clancy, Gambit has won scores of local, regional and national awards for innovative, incisive and robust journalism," the letter from the ADL reads. "The weekly's editorial positions reflect the ADL's commitment to equal opportunity and opposition to bigotry in any form."
Gambit Weekly |
10-15-2008 8:28 am |
Honors & Achievements
Georgia Straight Writer Wins Fellowshipnew
Travis Lupick was one of five recipients of the Seeing the World through New Eyes fellowship, which was established by the Jack Webster Foundation and the Canadian International Development Agency. He will visit Latin American in early 2009 to experience firsthand reporting from developing countries. The fellowship was open to British Columbia-based journalists 30 years old or younger or in their first five years of journalism, and winners were selected by a jury of professional journalists.
The Jack Webster Foundation |
10-15-2008 8:19 am |
Honors & Achievements
Opinion: Nashville Scene is Protected from Former Stripper's Lawsuitnew
Calling Michelle Peacock's defamation suit "a masterpiece of minimalism," the On Point blog from Courthouse News Service notes that the paper has little to worry about. "[Peacock] won't be able to gloss over the common-law privilege which protects reporters from liability when they fairly and accurately report the information in a public document," On Point reports. "In commenting on Peacock's alleged mid-afternoon handjobs, the Nashville Scene didn't say anything that was not in the police reports. So the privilege clearly applies."
On Point News |
10-14-2008 10:49 am |
Legal News
Illinois Times Takes Home 11 State Press Awards
The Springfield, Ill., alt-weekly fared well in the Illinois Press Association's 2008 Best of the Press contest, with 11 total awards. Of those, four were first-place finishes, in the Business Reporting, Feature Writing, Special Section, and Sports Feature categories.
(FULL STORY)
Illinois Times Press Release |
10-14-2008 8:34 am |
Press Releases
Monterey County Weekly: Looking Good at 20
The Weekly celebrates an historic milestone with a special 20th anniversary issue that hit the streets (and the web) yesterday. The 200-page issue, which is saddle stitched and features the Weekly's first-ever glossy cover, "takes a long backwards glance at the people, the institutions, the buildings, the parties and the natural disasters that have helped shape the community" since Coast Weekly (the paper's original name) debuted in the fall of 1988. "The community support has been fantastic for this issue, in much the same way it has been for the last twenty years," says founder and CEO Bradley Zeve.
(FULL STORY)
Monterey County Weekly Press Release |
10-10-2008 8:18 am |
Press Releases
Metro Times Picks Up Several State Press Awardsnew
The Detroit alt-weekly won seven awards in the Class A weekly division of the Michigan Press Association's 2008 Better Newspaper Contest, including first-place finishes in three categories: Feature Story, Picture Story, and Sports Feature. Winners were announced last weekend.
Metro Times |
10-10-2008 8:00 am |
Honors & Achievements
How I Got That Story: Zane Fischer
In the seventh installment of this year's "How I Got That Story" series, Santa Fe Reporter columnist Zane Fischer discusses his award-winning column, Zane's World, with Elena Brown. Fischer, who came to the alt-weekly world from the nonprofit sector, talks about the steep learning curve he faced starting out as a SFR columnist, how he comes up with ideas, and what he wishes more columnists would do. "Invoke a dialogue," he says. "One component of a column should be the continuous dialogue with the readers. It's all part of the process of building community."
(FULL STORY)
AAN News |
10-09-2008 2:10 pm |
Association News
City Paper Files for 'Chapter 86 Content Bankruptcy Protection'new
Playing off of parent company Creative Loafing's recent filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Washington City Paper says in a spoof news release and court filing that it has filed "voluntary petitions for content reorganization, citing diminished staff and the flagging confidence of its readers." The release notes that the paper "will continue to publish under court protection from its readers, who have wielded an unreasonable degree of power over the publication's future."
Washington City Paper |
10-09-2008 1:09 pm |
Industry News
| Comments (1)
Judge Dismisses Parts of Phoenix New Times' Lawsuitnew
U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton this week dismissed some, but not all, of a suit filed in April over the arrests of New Times founders Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin last year. Bolton dismissed the allegations of racketeering and negligence against special prosecutor Dennis Wilenchik and Sheriff Joe Arpaio, in addition to dismissing County Attorney Andrew Thomas entirely as a defendant, New Times reports. However, she left claims of gross negligence, malicious prosecution, and false arrest and imprisonment to be handled by Superior Court, unless facts presented in an amended complaint persuade her otherwise (New Times has until Oct. 31 to file such a complaint). Saying that Bolton's ruling "is not a surprise," Lacey writes in a blog post that "her ruling in the current case is consistent with her scant regard for the First Amendment and the rights of a free press."
Phoenix New Times |
10-09-2008 9:44 am |
Legal News
Syracuse New Times Cartoonist Releases Second Book
Joe Glisson, who has been New Times' political cartoonist for 25 years, is celebrating with a new retrospective book, Seems Like Old Times. "I had done the first book [1986's Dome Sweet Dome] a number of years ago, and I thought that I would like to have a companion to it," he says. "And this is the 25th year that I've been doing this, so I thought it was an appropriate time to do a retrospective. I don't know if anybody else feels that way, but I wanted to do it." Read more from Glisson in a Q&A posted at AltWeeklies.com.
(FULL STORY)
Syracuse New Times Press Release |
10-09-2008 8:36 am |
Press Releases
Folio Weekly Wins 'Small Victory' in Protracted Battle Over Documentsnew
The Jacksonville, Fla., alt-weekly first requested a document related to the city's NFL team, the Jaguars, in March 2004. The city initially told Folio that it did not possess the document the paper was requesting, a claim it made repeatedly over the next three years in regards to other football-related documents. Only after the paper spent more than $9,000 on an attorney and threatened legal action did the city finally admit it actually did have the requested documents. Turns out Jacksonville had 25 boxes worth of documents related to the football stadium renovations and the city's bid to host the Super Bowl. "Our quest to obtain the records ended with a small victory -- the city provided many documents and repaid $5,000 of our legal fees," writes Folio's Marvin Edwards. "But it also highlighted the city's contempt for public records laws, and its utter lack of accountability."
Folio Weekly |
10-08-2008 11:04 am |
Legal News
Layoffs Hit Las Vegas Weekly and The Village Voice
Facing a tough economic climate, two AAN members had to lay off several employees last week. The Las Vegas Weekly let go "a writer and an art staffer," as part of larger staff reductions by parent company Greenspun Media Group, the Las-Vegas Review-Journal reports. In addition, The Village Voice laid off two staff writers and a deputy copy chief, according to Pop + Politics.
AAN News |
10-08-2008 9:56 am |
Industry News
