AAN News
Merchants Protest Mountain Xpress Cover Storynew
Angry business owners said they saw no news value in a recent story which explored the intertwining issues of crime, drugs and gentrification in downtown Asheville, N.C.
Mountain Xpress |
12-20-2012 3:01 pm |
Industry News
Tags: Mountain Xpress
North Carolina Press Association Honors 3 Alt-Weekliesnew
Independent Weekly, Mountain Xpress and Yes! Weekly recently received accolades from the organization.
North Carolina Press Association |
03-21-2012 11:42 am |
Honors & Achievements
Mountain Xpress Director of Business Development Departs
Longtime advertising leader James Fisher is leaving the Mountain Xpress. Since joining the paper in 1995, he has been an ad rep, sales manager, ad director and most recently, director of business development.
(FULL STORY)
AAN |
04-20-2011 11:29 am |
Industry News
Alt-Weekly Writers Pick Up Several Food Journalism Awardsnew
Gus Garcia-Roberts (Miami New Times) and Hanna Raskin (Mountain Xpress) both snagged first place honors.
Association of Food Journalists |
09-08-2010 10:36 am |
Honors & Achievements
Four Alt-Weeklies Named Finalists in Food Journalism Awardsnew
The Association of Food Journalists (AFJ) has announced the winners in its 2010 awards competition, and four AAN members are in the mix. Miami New Times has placed in three categories -- Best Newspaper Food Feature (under 200K circ.), Best Newspaper Food Story and Best Newspaper Food Criticism. The Village Voice staff is competing in the Best Newspaper Food Coverage (150-250K circ.) category, while the L.A. Weekly staff is in the running for Best Food Blog. And the Mountain Xpress' Hanna Raskin, who recently decamped to the Dallas Observer, is competing in the Best Newspaper Food Column category. The placement of the winners will be announced at AFJ's annual conference in September.
Association of Food Journalists |
05-06-2010 1:34 pm |
Honors & Achievements
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
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
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Alt-Weekly Staffer-Turned-Politician's Atheism Becoming Hot Issuenew
The professed atheism of Cecil Bothwell, a former staff writer at the Mountain XPress who was elected to the Asheville City Council last month, is becoming an issue in North Carolina. Bothwell is facing a challenge that stems from an odd clause in the state's constitution, which bars politicians who deny the existence of God from holding office. Bothwell's opponents are considering a lawsuit over his being allowed to take office (he affirmed the oath of office last week), even though federal courts have ruled religious tests for public office are unlawful under the U.S. Constitution. Meanwhile, the case has gone nationwide, with the Associated Press, the Huffington Post and others weighing in. Last night, Bothwell appeared on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show.
Asheville Citizen-Times |
12-15-2009 8:49 am |
Industry News
Tags: Management, Mountain Xpress
Mountain XPress Celebrates 15th Anniversary
After running the monthly "activist publication" Green Line for seven years, Jeff Fobes launched Mountain XPress on Aug. 10, 1994. The Asheville, N.C., weekly takes a look back with a special issue featuring a timeline of milestones and commentaries from ad director James Fisher and Fobes, who discusses -- among other things -- the shift from monthly to weekly. "[It] was an astonishing experience. The pace picked up fourfold, and it never let up," he writes. "Our tiny staff lived and breathed the audacity of the effort, working for paltry pay (though we had, thankfully, closed the multiyear chapter of working for no pay)."
AAN News |
08-19-2009 8:53 am |
Honors & Achievements
AAN Members Across the Country Unveil Major Changes
- The Mountain Xpress is ending its 14-year run as a print publication today, "suspending its regular online news reports and converting its entire news operation to Twitter dispatches from staff and trusted community journalists."
- The San Francisco Bay Guardian has settled its lawsuit with Village Voice Media, agreeing to drop its legal action and "shut the fuck up" about PG&E, sunshine, media concentration, rent control, and over-development.
- Publisher Sally Freeman has sold the Boise Weekly to N-Corp-Al, which quickly shut the alt-weekly down and relaunched it as the Treasure Valley Weekly Post.
- The Washington City Paper has relaunched as the Huffington City Paper.
- Salt Lake City Weekly announced it has purchased SLUG magazine and will bring new features like "Cute Baby of the Month" and "Those Wacky Pets" to the long-running local underground-music magazine.
- Athens, Ga., alt-weekly Flagpole has relaunched as "a celebrity 'zine about fun and style, now to be known as Starpole."
- The East Bay Express is changing editorial course, introducing new procedures like "user-generated copyediting" and "reader-assigned stories."
AAN News |
04-01-2009 12:22 pm |
Industry News
N.C. Alt-Weeklies Win Handful of State Press Awardsnew
In the North Carolina Press Association's annual contest, the Independent Weekly won a total of nine awards and Mountain Xpress took home three. The Indy finished first in three categories: criticism (which it swept), investigative reporting and news coverage. The Xpress finished first in the Special Section category. In addition, the Indy collected five awards, including one first-place win, in the the North Carolina Press Photographers Association's annual contest.
North Carolina Press Association |
02-13-2009 2:22 pm |
Honors & Achievements
Ten AAN Members That Bucked the Trends and Grew in '08new
In the old days, when the media reported on problems in the newspaper industry, alternative newspapers weren't included. But alt-weeklies are immune no longer: In 2008, many AAN papers faced some of the same issues afflicting their mainstream brethren in the print media. However, you can still find alt-weeklies that had a pretty good year in 2008. That's just what AAN's editor Jon Whiten did, and he reports on 10 papers that increased revenue in a story published by Editor & Publisher.
Editor & Publisher |
01-28-2009 1:42 pm |
Industry News
Tags: Circulation, Classified Advertising, Design & Production, Editorial, Electronic Publishing, Financial, Management, Marketing, Retail Advertising, The Athens NEWS, Boulder Weekly, Illinois Times, Mountain Xpress, NUVO, Pacific Northwest Inlander, Portland Phoenix, San Luis Obispo New Times, Santa Fe Reporter, Seven Days
Mountain XPress Editorial Consultant Diesnew
C.B. "Chick" Squire, who had been working with the weekly since the mid-1990s, died on Jan. 4 of natural causes. He was 88 years old. "Chick was the last of the old guard who stood by and believed in this publication," writes XPress publisher Jeff Fobes, "all the way from its inception as Green Line many years ago to the current weekly print and online avatars of Mountain Xpress." More from the News & Observer.
Mountain XPress |
01-14-2009 9:20 am |
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
AAN Members Fare Well at SPJ's Green Eyeshade Awardsnew
In the non-daily print division, both the Memphis Flyer and Miami New Times won four first-place awards in the annual contest which "recognizes outstanding journalism in 11 southeastern states." The Flyer placed first in disaster coverage, editorial writing, feature reporting, and political reporting. It also tacked on two third-place finishes. Miami New Times finished first in consumer reporting, courts and law reporting, criticism (a category swept by alt-weeklies), and non-deadline news. New Times added one third-place finish as well. In addition, New Times Broward-Palm Beach took home two awards, including a first-place win for sports reporting; while both Mountain XPress and North Carolina's Independent Weekly went home with a second-place award. Winners were announced Saturday in Atlanta.
New Times Broward-Palm Beach |
07-23-2008 8:39 am |
Honors & Achievements
