AAN News

Isthmus News Editor Wins National Award for Animal Issues Reporting

Isthmus news editor Bill Lueders has received a Genesis Award from the Humane Society of the United States for his reporting on animal issues. Lueders was honored for his reporting on animal research at the UW-Madison, including his story about a 5-year-old primate named ro4040 and his articles on decompression experiments involving sheep. "It was a great honor for me and for Isthmus," says Lueders, whose article on primate research was excerpted in the award booklet for the star-studded ceremony in Beverly Hills. (FULL STORY)
Isthmus Publishing Press Release  |  03-23-2010  8:44 am  |  Press Releases

Mail List/Fulfillment Leader Joins Bartash Team

Philadelphia Firm Boosts Subscription Services and Circulation Development (FULL STORY)
Bartash Printing Press Release  |  03-23-2010  12:32 pm  |  Press Releases

Video: Web-First Publishing - How Alt-Weeklies Can Survive

The clip below is of a SXSW panel featuring Joran Oppelt and Stephen Hammill of Creative Loafing, Carly Carioli of the Boston Phoenix and the East Bay Express' Jody Colley. (Note: there are a few minutes of video before the discussion begins.)

AAN  |  03-19-2010  5:11 pm  |  Industry News  |  Comments (2)

Top Editor Will Leave Mountain Xpressnew

Managing editor Jon Elliston will leave the Asheville alt-weekly in mid-April to write a book based on his 2008 Xpress story about a short-lived summer camp that was attacked and run out of the state in 1963. Elliston, who started contributing to Xpress in 2003 and was hired as news editor in 2005 and subsequently became managing editor, says his departure is "bittersweet" but necessary. "I had dreamed of writing this book in my spare time, but that's proved impossible," he says. "It's a story that's begging to be told, and it's become clear that in order to do it right, I'll need to make it my primary endeavor for at least six months or so." Meanwhile, Xpress staff writer Brian Postelle will start a new job next week doing PR for the city of Asheville, and multimedia editor Jason Sandford recently left the paper to work on his popular local blog. "These are major changes in our news staff, which have put us all in high gear. We're losing some strong news personnel," publisher Jeff Fobes says. "But Xpress has come through a number of staff changes over the years -- and we've managed to learn and grow from them."
Mountain Xpress  |  03-19-2010  5:01 pm  |  Industry News

Portico President and AAN Board Member Says Farewell

Steve Delgado has left his post with Portico Publications to relocate to Los Angeles this summer. Delgado has been with the company, which owns AAN members C-VILLE Weekly, Free Times and Metro Spirit, since 2002, serving as publisher, vice president and, most recently, president. At last year's AAN Convention, he was also elected to the Board of Directors as chair of the Design & Production Committee. "The last eight years with Portico have been an exciting time in my life and it was a very difficult decision to leave the company," Delgado says in a statement. "The people who make go are immensely talented and I will miss working with them every day. I'm looking forward to finding a group on the left coast with an equal amount moxie that can bring out my best." (FULL STORY)
Portico Publications Press Release  |  03-19-2010  4:44 pm  |  Press Releases

Three North Carolina AAN Members Nab State Press Awardsnew

The Independent Weekly won seven total awards this year from the North Carolina Press Association, including the Hugh Morton Photographer of the Year, the highest honor given in the photography category. That award for non-daily photographers went to the paper's D.L. Anderson for the second year in a row, with the judges praising him for having "an eye for the unique, a great sense of composition, a technical touch and a natural knack." The Indy also placed first in the Online Breaking News, Best Video, General Excellence Website and Criticism categories. Mountain XPress took home two awards, including a first place win for Best Multimedia Project, and Creative Loafing (Charlotte) received one award.
North Carolina Press Association  |  03-19-2010  11:22 am  |  Honors & Achievements  |  Comments (1)

VVMH's New Happy Hours App Climbs App Store Rankings

Happy Hours, the mobile application launched earlier this month by Village Voice Media Holdings and GoTime, is currently the number one free travel application at the iTunes app store.
AAN  |  03-19-2010  11:14 am  |  Honors & Achievements

Pol: City 'Loses Something Important' with District Weekly Closingnew

Long Beach Councilman Robert Garcia tells the Press-Telegram that the community will suffer with the three-year-old weekly newspaper closing. "I may not have agreed with them on a lot of things, but the whole crew did a great job investigating and providing a check and balance against government and powerful interests," he says. "The city loses something important when they lose an independent voice like the District, even if it's a point of view you strongly disagree with." His thoughts are echoed by Press-Telegram columnist Tim Grobaty, who says the paper "made for jolly competition in local journalism."
The Press-Telegram  |  03-18-2010  1:46 pm  |  Industry News

The Mexican Asks a New Mexicannew

Albuquerque's The Alibi turned the tables on Gustavo Arellano, the columnist behind the racy ¡Ask a Mexican! column. The paper challenged Arellano to ask a New Mexican, and the result, he says, was "brilliant." Joseph Baca, a wine writer and native of the state, answered questions on Santo Niño de Atocha, curanderas, chile and Hispanos. "That Baca guy has a future outside of vacas!," Arellano says.
The Alibi  |  03-18-2010  10:06 am  |  Industry News

Alt-Weeklies Finalists in Many Maggie Award Categoriesnew

The Western Publishing Association has announced the finalists for its annual Maggie Awards, which go to work deemed "The Best in the West." Six alt-weeklies are finalists for best overall publication, with five Village Voice Media titles -- Houston Press, LA Weekly, OC Weekly, SF Weekly and Westword -- the only finalists in the Tabloids/Consumer category, and the San Francisco Bay Guardian a finalist in the Politics & Social Issues/Consumer category. Houston Press and OC Weekly are both also finalists in the Best Web or Digital Edition Magazine Blog/Trade & Consumer category, and many of the VVM papers are competing in other categories:
  • Best Series of Articles/Consumer: City Pages, Phoenix New Times and Westword
  • Best Public Service Series or Article/Trade & Consumer: Houston Press, Phoenix New Times and SF Weekly
  • Best News Story/Consumer: LA Weekly, Phoenix New Times and SF Weekly
  • Best Signed Editorial or Essay/Consumer: Phoenix New Times
  • Best Feature Article/Consumer: SF Weekly
Winners will be announced May 7.
Western Publishing Association  |  03-18-2010  9:28 am  |  Honors & Achievements

The Stranger Looks at 'The Crazy Alt-Weekly War in San Francisco'new

The legal battle between the San Francisco Bay Guardian and the SF Weekly is "a war straight out of the last century in its ruthlessness and its destructive potential," writes The Stranger's Eli Sanders in a 10,000-plus word cover story this week. The piece covers a lot of ground, but frames the battle as one between two alt-titans: Bay Guardian publisher Bruce Brugmann and Village Voice Media executive editor Michael Lacey. "These two men have hated each other for decades," Sanders writes, "but with increasing venom since 1995, when Lacey showed up in San Francisco in cowboy boots to announce that he and his partners had just purchased the tiny SF Weekly and planned to make a huge success of it."
The Stranger  |  03-17-2010  8:06 pm  |  Industry News

Armond White Talks 'Greenberg' Snub, Attacks Village Voice Criticnew

White uses most of his space in this week's New York Press review of Greenberg to reflect on the controversy that spilled out last week over his being disinvited from the film's screening. The snub, which was the subject of much chatter among New York film and media types, was allegedly due to White's calling for the mother of Greenberg director Noah Baumbach to have an abortion. As this allegation was debated on the web, Village Voice critic J. Hoberman dug up a copy of the review, which wasn't available online, from the public library and posted it online in a post titled "Proof That Critic Armond White Did Call for Noah Baumbach's Abortion." (By the way, Baumbach's mother, Georgia Brown, was a Voice film critic in the 1980s.) That gesture was not looked upon kindly by White, who contends that Hoberman "deliberately mischaracterized the review," before attacking the longtime Voice critic for "normaliz[ing] the arrogance of class privilege" and calling him "a force behind racist snobbery" and "the scoundrel-czar of contemporary film criticism." MORE: Hoberman responds.
New York Press  |  03-17-2010  6:44 pm  |  Industry News

District Weekly to Foldnew

The three-year-old non-AAN weekly in Long Beach, Calif., is closing up shop, according to LBPost.com. The paper was launched by the OC Weekly's founding editor Will Swaim, and had many former OC Weekly staffers on board, including Ellen Griley, who was the District Weekly's editor (Swaim left the paper in 2008).
LBPost.com  |  03-17-2010  6:11 pm  |  Industry News

OC Weekly Staff Writer Releases Second Booknew

Nick Schou has followed up his 2006 book on Gary Webb with Orange Sunshine: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love and Its Quest to Spread Peace, Love, and Acid to the World, which was released yesterday. The book examines the Brotherhood, dubbed the "Hippie Mafia," which grew from a small group of surfers to the biggest group of acid dealers and hashish smugglers in the nation. Schou tells his Weekly colleague Matt Coker that he had to go to some extraordinary lengths to track down Brotherhood members for the book. "I had to hike a mile up a really remote slope in Maui to talk to a Buddhist hermit who was able get me an interview with Ram Dass, [Timothy] Leary's Harvard philosophy colleague and acid researcher," He says. "Another time, I had to play guitar with a Brotherhood smuggler who has a cable access television show in Santa Cruz."
OC Weekly  |  03-17-2010  8:59 am  |  Industry News

Podcast