AAN News
How I Got That Story: Gilbert Garcia
In the sixteenth installment of this year's "How I Got That Story" series, San Antonio Current music editor Gilbert Garcia talks about his winning columns, which Ling Ma says are all "portraits of mediocrity." She's talking not about Garcia's writing, of course, but about the subjects he covers: The Police, Paul McCartney, and American Idol Haley Scarnato. Garcia discusses his band, the role a music critic should play, and the difficulty of writing about something you know very well. "When you know too much about a subject, you almost have too many approaches you could take," he says.
(FULL STORY)
AAN News |
11-14-2008 12:44 pm |
Association News
Rebecca Schoenkopf is Out as LA CityBeat Editornew
Schoenkopf gave her notice this week, according to an email obtained by LA Observed. She had been CityBeat's editor since April. It is not clear who will replace her, or if newly named publisher Will Swaim will take on double-duty as publisher and editor, as he did for a time at OC Weekly.
LA Observed |
11-14-2008 9:10 am |
Industry News
Google Releases Search Engine Optimization Starter Guidenew
Google |
11-14-2008 11:03 am |
Industry News
VVM's Digital Director Talks About How They've Approached the Webnew
In a video interview from last month's Digital Hollywood conference, Village Voice Media director of web and digital operations Bill Jensen tells Vator TV's Ezra Roizen about how VVM has stepped up its game online. "The key is ... we had to go daily," Jensen says. "That was the biggest challenge ... changing the culture to go from weekly to daily." He says that each VVM paper now has about 30 pieces of daily content going up on its site, in addition to the weekly content being created for the paper.
Vator TV |
11-13-2008 1:06 pm |
Industry News
Boston Phoenix Film Critic on the State of Film Criticismnew
Gerald Peary, who has been a critic for more 30 years, celebrated his career last night with a special screening of his three favorite films at a Cambridge theater. To mark that occasion, he spoke with BU Daily about how film criticism has changed over the years, his film-crit documentary For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism, and the difference between reviewing and criticism. "Reviewing is the basic lunch bucket job that everybody does, which is consumer reporting," Peary says. "But what a critic does in addition is contextualize the movie in terms of history, politics, a filmmaker's career, and genre. A film critic sees the movie as just a starting point for a more general discussion."
BU Today |
11-13-2008 11:26 am |
Industry News
Village Voice Vet Named New Editor of Philadelphia Weekly
Adamma Ince, who worked at the Voice for 12 years until she left last fall, will replace longtime PW editor Tim Whitaker. Whitaker had been the paper's editor since 1994, when it was known as Welcomat. At the Voice, Ince served as chief of research, associate editor, reporter, and, most recently, managing editor. "Adamma gained valuable experience and a special passion for editorial from The Village Voice in New York which can only lift PW to new heights in the fast changing world of print and electronic media," Anthony A. Clifton, the CEO of PW parent company Review Publishing, says in a release.
(FULL STORY)
Review Publishing Press Release |
11-13-2008 9:29 am |
Press Releases
Salt Lake City Weekly Drops 'Savage Love' After Talk of Utah Boycottnew
In the wake of the passage of a same-sex marriage ban in California last week, an effort that was heavily funded by the Mormon church, Dan Savage and others have called for boycotting the state. "Trouble is, all Utahns aren't to blame, nor are all Mormons," writes Salt Lake City Weekly founder John Saltas. "A nonspecific call to boycott is never effective and is fraught with misdirected fire." He concludes that "since Savage hates Utah so much, there's no point in us playing in his sandbox by sending him a regular check." MORE:The Village Voice weighs in on the Weekly's decision. STILL EVEN MORE: Savage has been making the media rounds talking about Prop. 8 this week. Check out his New York Times op-ed, his appearance on The Colbert Report and his takedown of Tony Perkins on Anderson Cooper 360.
Salt Lake City Weekly |
11-13-2008 9:18 am |
Industry News
East Bay Express Writer Wins National Science Journalism Awardnew
Kara Platoni has won first place honors in the "small newspapers" category in this year's American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science Journalism Awards for stories in the Express about efforts of local scientists to determine whether there is life elsewhere in the cosmos. Platoni "did a marvelous job of bringing the faraway questions surrounding astrobiology down to Earth and particularly important to the readers in her region," judge Andrew Revkin of the New York Times says. She will receive $3,000 and a plaque at the 2009 AAAS Annual Meeting in February.
American Association for the Advancement of Science |
11-13-2008 8:23 am |
Honors & Achievements
Study: Publishers Missing Out On Untapped Monetary Value Of Online Content Proliferationnew
Online Media Daily |
11-13-2008 8:24 am |
Industry News
Dan Savage Talks 'Savage Love' and the Role of Alt-Weekliesnew
In the recurring "So What Do You Do?" column on MediaBistro, the editorial director of The Stranger and syndicated sex advice columnist discusses how he got started with "Savage Love," how sex-column writing has changed in the last 15 years, and why he loves his job. "I get emails from people all day long describing their sex lives and sex problems," he says. Savage also talks about the role of the alt-weekly in a deteriorating mainstream media landscape. "I think alt-weeklies have more and more of a role to play -- particularly as dailies continue to try and swim around with an anvil under each arm," he says. "One anvil is objectivity and the other is 'family newspaper.' Alt-weeklies have the luxury of publishing writing by adults, to adults, and for adults. And that's a real advantage. It's a style advantage, it's an attitudinal advantage, and it's also an urban advantage."
MediaBistro |
11-12-2008 12:52 pm |
Industry News
Longtime L.A. Weekly Astrologer Diesnew
Rochelle "Rockie" Gardiner, who had written "The Rockie Horoscope" for the Weekly since 1983, died on October 31. She was 70 years old. The column was a very popular feature in the Weekly, and went on to be nationally syndicated. Judging by the outpouring of comments on the Weekly's site (80 at last count), Los Angeles has lost an institution. There will be a public memorial for the late astrologer on November 15, 3-6 p.m., at Boardner's, 1652 N. Cherokee Ave., Hollywood (323-462-9621).
L.A. Weekly |
11-12-2008 9:31 am |
Industry News
Willamette Week Tightens Belt, but Santa Fe Reporter is 'Doing Well'new
In his yearly report to readers, Willamette Week publisher Richard Meeker says the Portland, Ore., newsweekly's financial situation has been "lousy." Advertising is down since July and the paper is more than ten percent below budget for the year. But the news isn't all bad. Meeker says WW's "total audience has remained steady" and its sister paper, the Santa Fe Reporter, is having a good year. Nevertheless, WW has laid off several staffers and transferred one staff writer to Santa Fe. Editor Mark Zusman tells AAN News that the paper laid off three classified sales representatives, one designer, and staff writer (and "Queer Window" columnist) Byron Beck, while Corey Pein moves to the Reporter. Although the paper will "be lucky to eke out a small profit this year," Meeker says he and Zusman are "eager to tackle the challenges we all now face, and more committed than ever to continuing -- and improving -- the quality of reporting and thinking we do." More on Beck's departure from the Portland Mercury and Just Out magazine.
Willamette Week |
11-12-2008 8:33 am |
Industry News
How I Got That Story: Rob Harvilla
In the fifteenth installment of this year's "How I Got That Story" series, Village Voice music editor Rob Harvilla talks to Ling Ma about his winning columns, which included a memorable Venn diagram-based breakdown of a breakout hip-hop hit. While Harvilla doesn't take himself too seriously (he says his career choice is "pretty frivolous"), you can tell he is serious about music by reading his work. In this Q&A, he discusses the rock critic's lexicon, how blogs and the web have impacted music criticism, and the distinct absence of rock-critic groupies. "It's a great job and I love it, but I don't think women are generally attracted to rock critics on the basis of them being rock critics," Harvilla says. "It's usually in spite of that fact."
(FULL STORY)
AAN News |
11-11-2008 1:08 pm |
Association News
Jim Holman May Float Parental Notification Iniative Againnew
Proponents of the California ballot initiative to mandate parental notification before teen abortions tell the Oakland Tribune they will likely try a fourth time after this year's attempt, Proposition 4, was narrowly defeated last week. The ballot measures are funded in large part by San Diego Reader publisher Jim Holman. "Talking to Mr. Holman, he was commenting about how close it was, and I think he was feeling a little down as if a little extra effort might have put it over," Proposition 4 spokesman Albin Rhomberg tells the Tribune. "When you see it's that close, it sort of increases that sense of obligation to follow through."
The Oakland Tribune |
11-11-2008 11:58 am |
Industry News
| Comments (1)
The FBI Tracked Village Voice Co-Founder Norman Mailer for 15 Yearsnew
According to FBI documents obtained by the Washington Post via FOIA, the bureau "closely tracked the grand and mundane aspects of the acclaimed novelist's life" from 1962-1977. It all started when notorious FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover read a Mailer essay on Jacqueline Kennedy in Esquire in 1962, and decided that he needed more info on the author and social critic, who helped start the Village Voice in 1955. The Post obtained 165 pages of the FBI's 171 pages on Mailer, many of which were stamped CLASSIFIED and SECRET and SUBV. CONTROL, apparently referring to a program to watch suspected subversives, the Post reports.
The Washington Post |
11-11-2008 10:03 am |
Industry News
