AAN News
Fireworks in SFBG-VVM Trial as Brugmann Testifies
Although their dispatches read as if they're reporting from two different trials, both SF Weekly and the Bay Guardian agree that the temperature in the courtroom rose on Tuesday when the Bay Guardian's editor and publisher, Bruce Brugmann, took the stand. According to VVM's Andy Van De Voorde, Brugmann "exploded on the stand ... pounding his hand on the witness box, raising his voice, and growing red-faced." But Bay Guardian executive editor Tim Redmond says his boss "stood up remarkably well under a cross-examination" and "generally made the SF Weekly's lawyer look silly." The Bay Guardian filed a more extensive report on the trial here, while SF Weekly posted dispatches following the action on Friday and Monday.
SF Weekly | San Francisco Bay Guardian |
02-06-2008 9:29 pm |
Industry News
Justice Fails to Meet Current Responsibilities under FOIA
In its FY09 budget proposal released earlier this week, the Bush Administration transfered to the Justice Department the Freedom of Information Act ombudsman position recently created by an act of Congress. The Bureau of National Affairs (subscription only) reports today that Justice failed to meet its own FOIA backlog reduction goal of 15 percent for 2007. "This should never happen, especially at the department that is responsible for reviewing other agency annual FOIA reports for accuracy," a former Justice official told BNA. The Justice Department currently provides guidance to federal agencies on FOIA compliance and also has a role in defending agencies against challenges to FOIA denials. Critics of the administration's proposal contend that because of its role in defending FOIA challenges, Justice lacks the neutrality to handle the new ombudsman function. More on the controversy from the Washington Post, the Ocala Star-Banner and Scripps Howard News Service.
BNA | Washington Post | Ocala Star-Banner | Scripps Howard News Service |
02-06-2008 7:43 pm |
Legal News
Tags: Editorial, Management
New Editor at Philadelphia City Papernew
Duane Swierczynski will be leaving this year's AAN convention-host paper later this month to focus on his other life as an author of crime novels and other books, the Philadelphia Daily News reports. The City Paper has confirmed that senior editor Brian Howard will replace Swierczynski as the alt-weekly's editor-in-chief.
Philadelphia Daily News |
02-06-2008 6:38 pm |
Industry News
Boston Phoenix Investigates Wrongful Conviction
Boston Phoenix Press Release |
02-06-2008 6:54 pm |
Press Releases
Large Crowds Flock to San Francisco for AAN Conferences
More than 190 people attended the Web Publishing Conference and 288 attended AAN West last week as AAN members descended on the Hotel Kabuki and the First Unitarian Church in San Francisco for several days of education, networking and fun. Post-conference surveys for both events will be circulated later this week. In addition, Powerpoint presentations featured at the conferences will soon be uploaded to the AAN Resource Library.
AAN Staff |
02-05-2008 6:03 pm |
Association News
Bush Tries to Eliminate FOIA Ombudsmannew
Only 35 days after signing the OPEN Government Act into law, President Bush wants to kill a key provision of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reform bill via a budgetary maneuver, reports Cox Newspapers' Washington Bureau. Bush's proposal would eliminate funding for an ombudsman at the National Archive and Records Administration and transfer the role of settling FOIA disputes to the Justice Department. Open government advocates believe Justice has a conflict of interest that would inevitably lead the department to defend federal agencies seeking to keep government records secret. "This proposal violates both the explicit text of the OPEN Government Act and its legislative intent," bill sponsors Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and John Cornyn (R-TX) wrote today in a letter expressing their opposition to Bush's spending plan.
Cox Newspapers Washington Bureau |
02-05-2008 5:27 pm |
Legal News
Tags: Editorial, Management
Greenville, SC's The Beat is Shuttered
The paper's editor and publisher, James Shannon, announced the closure on Friday. Shannon predicted that alternative voices like his will increasingly gravitate to the web "as opposed to the more costly print product that requires a level of support hard to obtain without excessive pandering in a free publication funded solely by advertising dollars." With a lineage that began in 1991 and evolved from predecessors Creative Loafing-Greenville and MetroBeat, the latest version of The Beat lasted 31 months. "(We) only wish we could have done it better and for a longer period of time," said Shannon. "But hell, at least we tried."
(FULL STORY)
The Beat |
02-05-2008 4:27 pm |
Press Releases
Testimony Continues in Bay Guardian/VVM Trial
Former Guardian ad director Jody Colley continued her testimony in that paper's predatory pricing trial against SF Weekly and Village Voice Media yesterday, as did Jennifer Lopez, a former ad sales rep of both papers. Colley's testimony centered on just how many accounts the Guardian may have lost due to alleged ad-price undercutting by the Weekly, and also on the challenges she faces in trying to increase the "unacceptably low prices" that she inherited from Village Voice Media when she took over as publisher of the East Bay Express, which was sold by VVM to by a group of investors in May 2007 and is also named in the suit. The trial resumes this morning.
SF Weekly | San Francisco Bay Guardian |
02-01-2008 11:09 am |
Industry News
Two More Guardian Witnesses Take the Stand in Trial Against SF Weekly
Executive editor Tim Redmond and former ad director Jody Colley were called as witnesses yesterday in the predatory pricing trial against the Weekly and Village Voice Media. Redmond's testimony centered on local ownership and the crucial matter of editorial spending. The Guardian is arguing that the Weekly was trying to put them out of business because it refused to cut editorial spending while it lost money overall. On the other hand, the Weekly reports that Redmond said he has had to struggle with laying off writers and editors over the past few years. "If [ad] revenue goes down, I have to cut costs. The Weekly editors don't have to meet that kind of budget; they can just get more money from headquarters," Redmond writes on the Guardian's blog. Colley, who is now the publisher of the East Bay Express, testified mostly about the Weekly's dealings with concert promoter Billy Graham Presents, which the Guardian claims is an example of illegal below-cost pricing. Her testimony will continue when the trial resumes this morning.
SF Weekly | San Francisco Bay Guardian |
01-31-2008 12:32 pm |
Industry News
Philadelphia City Paper Editor Adds to the Sherlock Holmes Legacynew
Duane Swierczynski's new interactive mystery is told from the perspective of Sherlock Holmes' trusty sidekick, Dr. Watson. The Crimes of Dr. Watson is sort of like an adult version of a pop-up book, as the clues in the book -- including replica newspapers -- fold out and are three-dimensional. Swierczynski, who in addition to editing the City Paper is a best-selling crime writer, says the book is targeted to both adults and children and can be a communal mystery-solving experience.
Good Morning America NOW |
01-31-2008 10:41 am |
Industry News
Judge Hears Opening Statements in Bay Guardian/VVM Trial
Yesterday, both sides in the predatory-pricing suit filed by the Guardian against SF Weekly and Village Voice Media gave their opening arguments, and Guardian associate publisher Jean Dibble took the stand. The local website Beyond Chron lays out the plaintiff's burden: "The Guardian will have to prove four things: (1) the SF Weekly sold ads below cost; (2) the Guardian was harmed; (3) the harm was due in large part to the fact that the Weekly sold ads below cost; and (4) the SF Weekly's purpose in selling the ads below cost was to cause harm to the Guardian." The Guardian's attorney argued that the Weekly has lost money for 11 straight years (a claim the defendants contest) as a direct result of selling ads below cost, and that it was selling at that rate with the express intent of damaging the Guardian. "If you're not trying to make a profit, what are you trying to do?," the Guardian reports he asked the jury. The Weekly's attorney argued that, yes, the paper has been selling ads below cost, but to cope with a tough regional economy and competition from the internet, not to put its competitor out of business. "The reason we were selling below cost is because that is all we could get for the ads," he told the jury, according to the Weekly's dispatch. The trial resumes this morning.
Beyond Chron | San Francisco Bay Guardian | SF Weekly |
01-30-2008 8:17 am |
Industry News
Alt-Weeklies: A Boon to the Thrifty?new
"These free periodicals are causing me to fill more time with reading (which has no cost) and less time with watching television or playing a computer game (which costs electricity, cable, internet, etc.)," writes the penny-pinching proprietor of the Are You Rich? blog. (S)he totals the amount of money saved per year by doing so at $5. "It doesn't seem like much, but consider another factor: the local alternative newspaper often has passionate writers and detailed community event listings. I've discovered several free events that I've attended that, without the alternative papers, I would have never been aware of them." That point was echoed in this weekend's New York Times, which had a piece looking at ways that New Yorkers are scaling back spending as they prepare for an economic downturn. One 29-year-old teacher "has reduced her spending ... [by] only buying paper goods on sale, tempering her hair product demands and scouring the Village Voice for local artists playing free concerts."
Are You Rich? Blog | The New York Times |
01-29-2008 8:56 am |
Industry News
Tags: The Village Voice
Adding Online Video to the Sales Toolkit
In November, the Sacramento News & Review launched its Face to Face Video Ad project. The ads, which have also been rolled out at the company's paper in Chico and will soon hit its Reno paper, are serious, in-depth recorded interviews with vendors about their products and services. News & Review president and CEO Jeff von Kaenel says the idea was inspired by a vacation to India with his teenage daughter, who was shooting and editing video of the trip. "The video technology had gotten so easy to use," he says, it got him thinking about how the paper could take advantage of the technological leaps. So far, the initial reaction to the project has been promising, according to Susan Cooper, sales development manager at the Sacramento paper. In this Q&A with AAN News, she talks in more detail about the project.
(FULL STORY)
AAN News |
01-28-2008 8:47 am |
Industry News
U.S. Justice Dept. Looking into Viability of Cleveland Free Timesnew
Lawyers and economists from the U.S. Justice Department are investigating if the Cleveland Free Times can "be a viable business in the current media climate" in the city, according to the Plain Dealer. The Free Times was closed in 2002 when its owner, Village Voice Media, agreed to shutter it, giving Cleveland's other alt-weekly, the New Times-owned Scene, a monopoly. (The two parent companies merged in 2005.) The Justice Dept. investigated that deal and forced the sale of Free Times to a group of investors. Former Free Times editor David Eden tells the Plain Dealer he was recently questioned by lawyers from Justice about whether or not he thought the paper could be turned around. He says he told them that Cleveland needs the paper's independent voice and he hopes it is sold to a local group rather than being bought out by the competition and closed. "It feels like deja vu all over again," he says.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer |
01-28-2008 1:20 pm |
Industry News
L.A. Weekly's Annual Biennial is a Hitnew
Los Angeles Times art critic Christopher Knight writes that the only thing missing from the third L.A. Weekly Annual Biennial, "Some Paintings," is "an exclamation mark at the title's end. A whopping 81 paintings by 80 artists, most made recently; here is a show that wants to make a point. And it does, with wit, verve and considerable taste." The show, curated by Weekly art critic Doug Harvey, opened Jan. 19. "Harvey favors an art that expresses a wild and raucous spirit of life," artnet Magazine says. "'Some Paintings' is a perfect antidote to the minimal cool of much successful art, which can often leave one feeling empty."
Los Angeles Times |
01-28-2008 10:44 am |
Industry News
