AAN News
L.A. Weekly Set to Move Across Town Next Maynew
LA Observed reports the paper "is leaving its longtime physical and spiritual home on Sunset Boulevard in the heart of Hollywood" to head to L.A.'s Westside. The Weekly signed a ten-year lease valued at about $7.5 million to be the only tenant in the 24,000-square-foot, three-level building, according to a related press release. "We were looking for a larger building that could house all of our employees in one facility and give them more space and amenities," publisher Beth Sestanovich says. "In addition, we now have ample parking in a covered lot, and the building will have great branding visibility from all sides. I'm confident that we'll be very happy in this new facility and that it will provide us with the type of creative space we need to continue to produce an award-winning publication."
LA Observed |
09-11-2007 8:36 am |
Industry News
Disney Options L.A. Weekly Article for Upcoming Filmnew
Variety reports that Jailhouse Rock will be based on the true story of an "American Idol"-like singing contest held in an Arizona jail, first reported in L.A. Weekly by Joshuah Bearman. Brian Robbins (Starship Dave, Coach Carter) has been tapped to direct the film, and he will share production duties with David Klawans (Nacho Libre). "Like Coach Carter, which came from a newspaper article we read, there's nothing better than real-life drama," Robbins says. This is the second Bearman article to be optioned by Klawans, according to Variety -- the first has become Escape From Tehran, a drama Klawans is producing with George Clooney.
Variety |
07-24-2007 1:01 pm |
Industry News
Matt Groening on His Alt-Weekly Rootsnew
Despite having drawn a weekly "Life is Hell" cartoon for L.A. Weekly for 20-plus years, The Simpsons creator says he's never set foot in the paper's office. "I'm sure very nice people work there, but here's the thing: I used to work at the [Los Angeles] Reader, and I noticed ... that people go crazy," he says in a wide-ranging L.A. Weekly profile. Groening then recounts how, after working for the Reader as a proofreader, paste-up artist, editor, critic and columnist, they fired him for selling his comic strip to Pasadena Weekly for $10 a week. "All I know is that the last time I showed up at a newspaper office, I got fired," Groening says.
L.A. Weekly |
07-23-2007 8:32 am |
Industry News
It's Musical Chairs at SoCal Alt-Weekliesnew
Former L.A. Weekly news editor Alan Mittelstaedt joined Los Angeles CityBeat yesterday as news editor, replacing Dean Kuipers, who moved to the Los Angeles Times. A little further down the coast, Rich Kane, who left OC Weekly in 2005 and ended up as editor of Inland Empire Weekly (a paper started by ex-OC Weekly staffer Jeremy Zachary that was later acquired by LA CityBeat-parent Southland Publishing), returns to the Weekly Aug. 2 as its new managing editor. Replacing Kane at Inland Empire is Charles Mindenhall, a former L.A. Weekly staffer.
LA Observed | OC Weekly |
07-20-2007 9:13 am |
Industry News
Jonathan Gold On Childhood, Snoop Dogg, and L.A. Cuisinenew
The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles |
07-13-2007 12:58 pm |
Industry News
More Reaction to The Nation's Piece on LA Weeklynew
Fishbowl LA says that Jon Wiener's piece on LA Weekly and Village Voice Media is, among other things, a "cry from an old media guy in a new media world." Regarding Wiener's criticism of the paper's slight reporting on the May Day fiasco in MacArthur Park, which was his evidence of the paper's "big editorial shift to the right," Fishbowl LA points him to the internet, where the Weekly published nearly 4,000 words on the subject on top of the "330-word piece" Wiener cited. Longtime film reviewer (and current OC Weekly staffer) Luke Y. Thompson also tells Fishbowl that "the film reviews haven't been assigned out of Denver for as long as I've been a part of it," as former OC Weekly editor Will Swaim had told Wiener. Meanwhile, New Times Broward-Palm Beach columnist Bob Norman, in a letter to Romenesko, says the story "is exactly the kind of thing Village Voice Media is moving the alt-weekly world away from -- presumptuous ideological essays with much teeth-gnashing and hand-wringing but very little actual reporting or common sense."
Fishbowl LA |
07-02-2007 1:42 pm |
Industry News
Is it 'The End of an Era' at LA Weekly and OC Weekly?new
That's what Jon Wiener argues in the Nation. Wiener claims the papers' new owners at Village Voice Media no longer cover "the forces trying to make LA a more egalitarian and less polarized city," and he laments what he calls LA Weekly's "editorial shift to the right" and a move towards "hyperlocalism" and "investigative hit pieces that target local bigwigs." UPDATE: On his blog, Matt Welch begs to differ.
The Nation |
06-28-2007 1:56 pm |
Industry News
Alt-Weeklies Clean Up at Southern California Journalism Awardsnew
Los Angeles CityBeat's Michael Collins won Print Journalist of the Year, while L.A. Weekly took two similar honors: Nikke Finke was named Entertainment Journalist of the Year and John Curry was named Designer of the Year. The Weekly's Jonathan Gold added to his growing trophy rack with a first-place win in the Entertainment Reviews/Criticism/Column category for his "Counter Intelligence" food reviews, while his colleague Libby Molyneaux won first in the Headline category. CityBeat's Anthony Miller placed first in the Entertainment Feature category, OC Weekly's Scott Moxley took home first in the Investigative Series category for "The New Crips," and Advice Goddess Amy Alkon won a first-place award for Headlines. L.A. Weekly also won a first-place award for Special Section, with "Who We Are: LA People 2006." OC Weekly's Gustavo Arellano received the
President's Award. Winners were announced this weekend.
LA Press Club |
06-19-2007 8:47 am |
Honors & Achievements
Campaign for L.A. Weekly Wins Advertising Awardnew
The "Speak Freely" ad campaign, created by the Ignited Minds agency, took home a Best Integrated Campaign prize at this year's Belding Awards for Advertising Excellence. Winners were announced last week.
Adweek |
06-11-2007 8:50 am |
Honors & Achievements
LA Weekly's Newest Reporter: Lucy Liunew
In the new vampire film Rise: Blood Hunter, Liu is Sadie Blake, a LA Weekly reporter "whose research into a goth cult gets a little too in-depth," according to the Toronto Star's review. The storyline should sound familiar to most alt-weekly reporters, who have undoubtedly found themselves in this situation at least once: "She awakes in a morgue to discover herself a newly minted member of the vampiric undead, expected to survive by drinking human blood." Of course, she wants none of it, and "armed with a baroque crossbow that kills vampires deader than undead, she sets out to settle a few scores." The film opens today in some cities.
Toronto Star |
06-01-2007 11:28 am |
Industry News
Tags: Management, L.A. Weekly
Jonathan Gold's Pulitzer Win Called 'Groundbreaking'new
"Pulitzer recipients almost always are employees of established daily publications," notes the San Diego Union-Tribune. The paper also points out that Gold's Pulitzer was the first awarded to a food critic. "I always thought you had to have a grown-up job doing something like reviewing operas at The New York Times to get a Pulitzer, not writing about taco stands for the (LA) Weekly," Gold says.
San Diego Union-Tribune |
05-31-2007 1:12 pm |
Honors & Achievements
Jonathan Gold Continues His Post-Pulitzer Press Roundsnew
The newly minted Pulitzer-winning LA Weekly food critic talks process with On the Media's Brooke Gladstone, saying he doesn't take notes and shies away from fancy food vocabulary and Latinate synonyms. "It must be said that there is only one word that means 'salty,' and if you try to get beyond something being salty -- you know, briny or oceanic -- you're overwriting, and the prose suffers," Gold says. Noting Gold's "intense" devotion to meat, Gladstone asks the critic if he receives letters from vegans demanding equal time. "Yeah, I get letters from vegans, usually more in sorrow than in anger," he says, adding that he also gets a lot of letters from Jewish people complaining that he writes "an awful lot about pork." Over a meal of huaraches with a succulent beef brain and more, Gold tells the Washington Post's William Booth he's eaten at somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 restaurants in LA, and that he finds new haunts by scouring ethnic newspapers. "I don't understand a word of it, but they list an address and I go," he says.
On the Media | The Washington Post |
04-24-2007 10:49 am |
Honors & Achievements
Jonathan Gold Talks Food on 'All Things Considered'new
Co-host Michele Norris praises the Pulitzer-winning LA Weekly food critic for having "a very expansive view" of what being a restaurant critic is all about. "You wouldn't believe how many bad meals I eat in order to find the ones I review every week," Gold says. He visited a particular Taiwanese restaurant 17 times -- "until I figured out what the aesthetic was," he says -- even though he despised the food. "I described one dish there as being bitter -- not bitter like coffee, but bitter like cancer medicine," Gold says. "But I meant it in a good way."
National Public Radio |
04-18-2007 4:45 pm |
Honors & Achievements
LA Weekly's Jonathan Gold Wins Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism
First Time Restaurant Critic Wins
(FULL STORY)
LA Weekly Press Release |
04-18-2007 2:17 pm |
Press Releases
Jonathan Gold 'Giddy' About Winning Pulitzernew
"The Pulitzer Prize is something that, when you're a food writer, you don't even dream about," the LA Weekly food critic says. The AP says Gold's win boosted morale at the paper, which has "weathered several layoffs" since the Village Voice Media merger with New Times. "Maybe this means they won't fire me this year," Gold jokes. His wife and Weekly editor Laurie Ochoa says the Pulitzer is "especially sweet" and adds: "Now it's official: There is no conflict of interest when I say he's a great critic." VVM executive editor Michael Lacey tells the AP the Pulitzer win shows "alternative papers are beginning to get the respect they've earned."
Associated Press via Pravda |
04-17-2007 11:44 am |
Honors & Achievements
