AAN News

Retail the Next Bubble to Burst?new

San Francisco Chronicle  |  01-08-2009  6:02 pm  |  Industry News

Study: Marketers Will Focus on Content Creation and Social Media in '09new

Marketers are directing their budgets toward content, custom media and social media initiatives, according to a new study. Fifty-six percent of marketing decision-makers plan to increase their content marketing spending next year, while only 13 percent said they plan to decrease it.
Online Media Daily  |  12-30-2008  9:25 am  |  Industry News

Forecast: Most Media To Suffer Retrenchment in 2009new

The Center for Media Research  |  12-30-2008  12:38 pm  |  Industry News

Chief Operating Officer Talks About How VVM's Papers Are Faringnew

Responding in part to rumors circulating on a Denver website that Village Voice Media is on the brink of collapse, president and COO Scott Tobias talks to Westword's Michael Roberts about how the company's 15 papers are faring. Tobias says the company as a whole remains profitable and any talk of insolvency is hogwash, but concedes that times are tough. "Are we soft?" he asked. "No question. We go as our local mom and pops go, and our local mom and pops are having a hard time." He also talks about the company's new "uberblogger" strategy, which started with Roberts in Denver. One staff member at each paper is now being tasked with writing a handful of blog posts each day and editing and processing blog posts by other staffers and freelancers. Tobias says the focus on daily content is part of a transition "from a print product to a web platform with a print piece."
Westword  |  12-24-2008  11:18 am  |  Industry News

Layoffs Reported at Four Additional AAN Papers

As part of company-wide cuts at Creative Loafing, Washington City Paper and Creative Loafing (Charlotte) have each reportedly laid off two employees. In addition, Mediabistro is reporting on an unspecified number of layoffs at L.A. Weekly, and the Valley Advocate says that last week associate publisher Do-Han Allen and circulation manager Jeffrey Owczarski became "the latest casualties of a series of year-end layoffs by our parent company." A few days after his paper laid off seven, Creative Loafing (Tampa) editor David Warner dedicates his editor's note to a list of "the Top 10 Reasons Layoffs Suck."
AAN News  |  12-24-2008  9:17 am  |  Industry News

Metro Spirit: Daily's Ad Calling Us Out Works to Our Advantagenew

Last week, we noted that the Augusta Chronicle ran a house ad targeting advertisers who bypassed the daily and bought space in the city's alt-weekly. "We heard nothing about it locally from customers or readers, and skipped over it a number of times as we perused the paper," writes Metro Spirit publisher Bryan Osborn. "All of this points to the fact that buying full pages in The Chronicle is as effective as throwing money into a burning fireplace." He says the daily's ad "is a great advertising testimonial ... for Metro Spirit."
Metro Spirit  |  12-23-2008  12:55 pm  |  Industry News

Mountain XPress Implements Cost-Cutting Measuresnew

Employees of the Asheville, N.C., alt-weekly will see an across-the-board cut in pay of between 5 and 10 percent effective Jan. 1, owner and publisher Jeff Fobes announced Friday. The paper has suffered a recent decline in classified and retail advertising, and Fobes expects the slide to continue in 2009. "Our strategy is to share the pain, so we're instituting a company-wide pay cut," he says. "Everyone feels the pain; everyone should have input into what must be an evolving response to the economy." ALSO FROM THE XPRESS: The paper recently discussed its web operations in a feature story on how local publications are dealing with online journalism.
Mountain XPress  |  12-22-2008  9:56 am  |  Industry News

Judge Allows Ben Eason to Retain Control of Creative Loafingnew

The bankruptcy court judge refused to grant a motion by lender Atalaya to give it ownership of the company yesterday, Creative Loafing (Tampa) reports. Judge Caryl E. Delano ruled that CL's reorganization plan should proceed, and that it was too early into the case to say the plan won't work. On a second part of Atalaya's takeover motion, the judge scheduled the final evidentiary hearing for Jan. 21, and a Jan. 26 hearing has been set to review CL's proposed reorganization plan.
Creative Loafing (Tampa)  |  12-19-2008  3:52 pm  |  Industry News

North Carolina's Independent Weekly Announces Cutbacks, Two Layoffsnew

"After a year in which we had the most employees on staff in the paper's history -- 35 -- last week the Indy laid off two people, a reporter and the promotions coordinator, as well as reduced our freelance budget by 10 percent," Lisa Sorg writes in her editor's note this week. Sorg tells local blog Bull City Rising that the laid off employees are Vernal Coleman and Marny Rhodes, and that she and a number of other managers are taking voluntary pay cuts.
The Independent Weekly | Bull City Rising  |  12-19-2008  3:28 pm  |  Industry News

New Ad Network Launched With Nonprofit Ad

AAN's new eighth-page display ad network, known as AAN BRAN, published its first network-wide ad the week of Dec. 8. The ad, from the charity Direct Relief International, ran in scores of papers across the country and was sold by Evan Wells of the Santa Barbara Independent. Click through to learn more about the new program. (FULL STORY)
AAN  |  12-18-2008  11:41 am  |  Association News

Augusta, Ga., Daily Paper Takes on Alt-Weekly in Adsnew

According to the Buzz on Biz blog, last week the Augusta Chronicle ran a half-page ad targeting businesses that placed ads only with that city's AAN-member paper, the Metro Spirit. It tried to persuade ad buyers that by ignoring the daily, they were missing out on 104,000 readers. "It is the first time in memory that the Chronicle has named a competitor by name," Buzz on Biz reports.
Buzz on Biz  |  12-18-2008  9:26 am  |  Industry News

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