AAN News
Avenews Launches New Balloting and Survey Software
BeedFack is a ballot and survey web engine "designed to take the headache out of conducting large-scale reader's polls and managing associated editorial workflow and output," Avenews says in a release. The product works for simple and complex surveys, including the ubiquitous "Best Of" reader polls so many alt-weeklies undertake. "My staff is embracing it, finding it easy and fast," Salt Lake City Weekly editor Jerre Wroble says. "The best part is that once we've used the system for a Best Of, it remembers all write-ups, winners and locations so each year the process is quicker and easier."
(FULL STORY)
Avenews Press Release |
07-29-2009 9:27 am |
Press Releases
Real Estate Co. Drops Trademark Infringement Suit Against Craigslistnew
The Texas real estate company First Call Properties, which sued Craigslist for trademark infringement based on ads posted by users, has withdrawn the suit against the online listings website. First Call will continue its suit against AAA Apartment Locating, the company it says posted Craigslist ads using the phrases "first call," "call first," and "call us first" in a deliberate attempt to confuse consumers.
Online Media Daily |
07-28-2009 9:09 am |
Legal News
Registration is Open and the Schedule is Set for Writers Workshop
The annual workshop designed for alt-weekly writers and reporters is scheduled for Aug. 14 and 15 at the Medill School of Journalism on the Northwestern University campus in Evanston, Ill. Writers and editors from a number of AAN member papers will lead sessions covering everything from ethics to multimedia to political reporting, all in a way designed for staffers to get valuable, hands-on experience. Early registration rates are valid until Aug. 7, and the cut-off date to obtain AAN's discounted group hotel rate is this Friday, July 31.
(FULL STORY)
AAN |
07-27-2009 3:07 pm |
Association News
Poll: Advertisers Migrating From Print To Webnew
A recent LinkedIn/Harris Interactive poll of 1,015 top executives at ad agencies and their corporate clients found that while the number of advertisers using print and online are still roughly equal the trend lines for the two media are headed in opposite directions. While 88 percent said they were using print, and 92 percent said online, 74 percent of those using internet say they are using it more than they did one year ago, while 49 percent of advertisers that use print say they are using it less.
Media Daily News |
07-27-2009 11:18 am |
Industry News
AAN Joins Amicus Urging Supremes to Overturn 'Animal Cruelty' Statute [members only]
Richard Karpel |
07-27-2009 7:44 pm |
AAN Staff Blog
Metroland Finally Gets Served in Suit Filed in Aprilnew
A controversial executive training program known as NXIVM filed a lawsuit alleging defamation against the paper one day before the statute of limitations would have expired in April, but Metroland wasn't served papers until this month. The paper reports that the crux of NXIVM's suit stems from one line that was attributed to a source. Editor and publisher Stephen Leon says Metroland is consulting an attorney and hopes to have the suit quickly tossed. "The complaint is baseless, and 97 percent of it has nothing to do with Metroland," he says, adding that the passage cited "isn't even remotely defamatory."
Metroland |
07-24-2009 11:40 am |
Industry News
Pew: Mobile Web Use Growing Fastest Among African-Americans, Hispanicsnew
Online Media Daily |
07-24-2009 11:41 am |
Industry News
Tags: Electronic Publishing, Management
CEO Says Creative Loafing's Future Rests on Rules of Upcoming Auctionnew
Ben Eason tells the Chicago Reader that the key upcoming date in the ongoing bankruptcy saga of Creative Loafing is not Aug. 25, when the auction will be held, but July 27, when the judge sets the rules of the auction. He says the judge should restrict the ability of lender Atalaya Capital Management to bid on the company because "they'll put their money in and immediately take it out." He says that the issue should not just be who has the highest bid for the company, but the "highest and best" bid, which Eason thinks will be his. "For me it's my passion, my life, and everything," he says. "The real key here is not a financial play -- it's how everybody uses their publishing smarts and knowledge of online to fuse those models together. The game is not who's got the most money but who's got the most smarts to make the transition."
Chicago Reader |
07-22-2009 11:10 am |
Industry News
Longtime Metro Spirit Contributor Talks About the Paper's Startnew
As the Augusta, Ga., alt-weekly celebrates its 20th anniversary, reporter Angel Cleary talks to "the only person, save founder David Vantrease, who has been around for the entire history" of the paper: senior music contributor Ed Turner. He discusses what Metro Spirit has meant to the music scene, how much the paper has grown over the years and how he got his column started. "I freelanced starting with the first issue of the Spirit," Turner says. "It was, of course, B.C. (before computers) and (get ready for this) I did not know how to type. And I barely do now! David and Lisa Smith (who was Spirit editor for the first five years or so) agreed to accept handwritten columns from me, which I would slip in the mail slot."
Metro Spirit |
07-22-2009 9:38 am |
Industry News
Latest Phoenix New Times Spoof Sparks Sheriff Investigationnew
New Times ran a story in late June by "Joseph Rossi" on Reinalda de Souza, an Arizona faith healer who claimed to have killed Michael Jackson with a curse she learned in Brazil. Among the many exaggerated details in the piece is that de Souza had slit the throat of a 4½-month-old Rottweiler named Cerberus, drank his blood and left his lifeless carcass as part of a black magic ritual. This, New Times reports, led several people to call the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office to demand an investigation into the purported animal cruelty. Stephen Lemons, who actually wrote the piece, says that while this hoax didn't spark as much intense reaction as some of his earlier handiwork, "it was certainly a bunch of fun to write." He adds: "For the record, no animals were harmed in the making of the spoof."
Phoenix New Times |
07-21-2009 11:59 am |
Industry News
Radio Host Upset that Houston Press Took 'Ask a Mexican' Online Onlynew
Tony Diaz, who hosts KPFT's Nuestra Palabra program in Houston, says that the Houston Press' decision to publish Gustavo Arellano's syndicated column only on the web is like putting it "in the back of the bus." Diaz also says the Press doesn't understand how popular the column is among Hispanics, insinuating the alt-weekly is out-of-touch with that community -- an insinuation that editor Margaret Downing is having none of. "While I certainly understand the disappointment of some of our readers, to say that not carrying the column in print shows a lack of commitment to the Hispanic community is nothing but hyperbole," she says in a statement explaining the move.
Houston Press |
07-21-2009 9:05 am |
Industry News
Media Groups Make Push to Keep Officials On the Recordnew
A coalition of groups, led by the Bureau of National Affairs and including the Sunshine in Government Initiative (SGI), hope to change the practice of public officials insisting their remarks be off-the-record when addressing large audiences, the Washington Post reports. "Standing in front of 300 people and declaring your words to be 'off-the-record' is frustrating for reporters, but it's also silly," SGI coordinator Rick Blum says. "With Twitter, blogs and old-style email, the lobbyists, bloggers and other opinion-shapers in the audience will repeat your words a thousand different ways before you step off the podium. But a reporter who respects the traditional rules of the road can't report what you say to a broader audience."
The Washington Post |
07-20-2009 12:47 pm |
Industry News
Tags: Editorial, Management
Creative Loafing, VVM Test the Local Ad Network Watersnew
New Media Hub reports that Creative Loafing has trained some reps to buy and resell ad networks for key local display advertisers. CL joins Village Voice Media, which launched its Voice Local Network in June, in selling local ad networks. VVM new media director Bill Jensen says the company's network focuses on advertisers that align with the papers' main areas of focus, which helps set it apart from other ad networks. "When you are looking for music or a restaurant, things that are at the core of our business, you are looking for a little bit more than text ads," Jensen says. "We have the best food critics in the world. Its different if you are looking for a plumber."
New Media Hub |
07-20-2009 10:09 am |
Industry News
David Carr: Nikki Finke is a 'Digital-Age Walter Winchell'new
"In the three years since she started Deadline Hollywood Daily," Carr reports in today's New York Times, "her combination of old-school skills -- she is a relentless reporter -- and new-media immediacy has made her a must-click look into the ragingly insecure id of Hollywood." Finke recently sold the website, which she owned but Village Voice Media hosted, to Mail.com Media for an undisclosed sum.
The New York Times |
07-17-2009 11:59 am |
Industry News
Riverfront Times' All-Star Game Guide Gets its MLB Credentials Revokednew
With the All-Star Game taking place in St. Louis this week, the alt-weekly published a guide that included, among other things, home addresses of some current and former Cardinals baseball players. Some of the players were upset, and the team "felt it had no option but to instruct Major League Baseball to revoke the credentials they'd granted Riverfront Times to cover the All-Star Game, and to rescind our credentials to cover the team over the course of the regular season," editor Tom Finkel reports.
Riverfront Times |
07-17-2009 9:57 am |
Industry News
