AAN News
FOIA Reform Bill Approved by Senate Judiciary Committee
The OPEN Government Act will now head to the full Senate for debate, according to a statement released today by the Sunshine in Government Initiative, a coalition of media groups that includes AAN and has promoted FOIA reform since 2005. Last month, the House of Representatives passed a similar bill by an overwhelming margin. Both bills would restore meaningful deadlines for government agencies; require agencies to create hotlines and tracking systems for requests; create an ombudsman to resolve disputes and avoid litigation; ease the recovery of legal fees if a requester is forced to sue; and penalize agencies for delays. AAN members are encouraged to contact their senators to voice support for the bill.
(FULL STORY)
Sunshine in Government Initiative Press Release |
04-12-2007 1:50 pm |
Legal News
Tags: Editorial, Management
Creative Loafing (Charlotte) Celebrates 20th Anniversarynew
"Hey, this is cool," Matt Brunson remembers thinking when he was offered the opportunity to write for the alt-weekly in 1988. "I'll be able to earn a couple of extra bucks before this paper folds within the year." Twenty years later, he's Creative Loafing's associate editor and A&E editor. "When this paper started, hardly any of us really knew what we were doing," writes former editor-in-chief John Grooms. "It was [Creative Loafing's] first expansion into another city, and the nuts and bolts of how to do it, more often than not, were up in the air." He says the paper has succeeded because it's "been a source of good writing and quality information, speaking to the reader directly and urging readers to talk back as loudly as they want."
Creative Loafing (Charlotte) |
04-12-2007 10:26 am |
Industry News
The Georgia Straight is a Finalist for Canadian Investigative Awardnew
Jared Ferrie's September story about the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka has been named a finalist in the Canadian Association of Journalists' annual awards for outstanding
investigative journalism. Winners will be announced May 26.
Canadian Association of Journalists Press Release |
04-12-2007 8:15 am |
Honors & Achievements
Comcast Acquires Fandangonew
Adweek |
04-12-2007 11:44 am |
Industry News
Tags: Marketing, Retail Advertising
Recent Coverage on Web.AAN.org
AAN launched a web publishing news blog at web.aan.org last month. For more information on the blog, visit the about page, the editorial policy, and the blog style guide.
Recent posts include:
- Where in the world is your website?
- From Web to Print: ‘The Onion’ a case model of reverse publishing
- Tech to Use Right Now: Tagzania: Easy, Embeddable Google Maps
- 5 Ideas In 50 Minutes to revamp your site
- Tech to Try: Dabble BD: Better online spreadsheets
- Huffington’s Theory of Publishing Promiscuity
- Concept: Three Degrees of User-Generated Content (UGC)
AAN Staff |
04-11-2007 4:28 pm |
Association News
Borrell: Newspapers Nab Largest Share of Local Web Video Adsnew
Last year, 50 percent of total online video ad revenue went to local newspaper sites, while 20 percent went to TV-station sites and the remainder was spread among other local sites, according to a new Borrell Associates report. While video accounted for only five percent of local online advertising this year, Borrell expects that figure to increase to 35 percent by 2012, for a total of more than $7.7 billion.
Mediaweek |
04-11-2007 12:36 pm |
Industry News
Sen. Feinstein Resigns from Subcommittee After Alt-Weekly Exposenew
In January, Metro Silicon Valley and North Bay Bohemian reported that Sen. Dianne Feinstein's husband Richard C. Blum was a major beneficiary of contracts from the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee (MILCON) that she chaired. Last month, Feinstein quietly left the subcommittee after six years of service. "Perhaps she resigned from MILCON because she could not take the heat generated by Metro's expose of her ethics," reporter Peter Byrne speculates. "Or was her work on the subcommittee finished because Blum divested ownership of his military construction and advanced weapons manufacturing firms in late 2005?" Whatever the explanation, Feinstein's resignation caused a stir amongst a number of right-wing pundits, who claim liberal media bias is keeping the story out of the mainstream media. UPDATE: Peter Byrne informs AAN that it's not just the right that's up in arms about Feinstein's conflicts: Members of Code Pink and the Raging Grannies protested outside her San Francisco home this weekend. "It is an investigative journalist's dream to watch a story mobilize people across the political spectrum -- from Rush Limbaugh's Dittoheads to the Raging Grannies and Code Pink," Byrne tells AAN News. "And having reactionary demogogues pump up a story whose research was funded in part by The Nation Institute has a delicious irony."
Metro Silicon Valley |
04-11-2007 9:00 am |
Industry News
Survey: Boomers Have Money, Aren't Afraid to Spend Itnew
Brandweek |
04-11-2007 12:41 pm |
Industry News
Jupiter Finds Search Spending on Rise, Demand Fuels Rate Increasesnew
Online Media Daily |
04-11-2007 11:30 am |
Industry News
Monster Extends Alliance with TV Websitesnew
Editor & Publisher |
04-11-2007 11:25 am |
Industry News
Tags: Classified Advertising
AAN Convention Website Open for Business
You'll find a preliminary convention schedule on the site, along with everything you need to know about registering for the annual confab -- including the fact that AAN member papers are once again eligible for up to two free registrations. The programming at this year's conference, which will be held June 14-16 in Portland, Ore., will focus heavily on web publishing and management training.
AAN Staff |
04-10-2007 5:04 pm |
Association News
Miami New Times Reveals Sex Offenders Living Under a Bridge
But the men aren't hiding from the law. Incredibly, they were ordered to sleep under that bridge by state authorities, New Times' Isaiah Thompson reported last month. Residency restrictions for sex offenders have complicated the task of finding suitable housing for some offenders, especially those who leave prison homeless. "Probation officers just don't know what to do with cases like this," a Florida Department of Corrections spokesperson tells New Times. The alt-weekly's report has kicked up a storm of follow-up coverage, including stories by CNN and the Associated Press. But as New Times Broward-Palm Beach reporter Bob Norman complains on his blog (referring specifically to CNN), it's "too bad they're too arrogant and unprofessional to say whose scoop it is."
AAN News |
04-10-2007 1:18 pm |
Industry News
Metroland Dance Critic Diesnew
Mae Banner died on Friday after a long illness. She was 73 years old. "I was always impressed by how open-minded she was," says Peter Lesser, executive director of the Albany's Egg Center for the Performing Arts. "She appreciated all different types of dance from kids performances to avant garde and modern." In addition to her work at Metroland, Banner wrote for the Saratogian and Glens Falls Chronicle newspapers and taught sociology at the University of Tennessee, SUNY-Cortland and Skidmore College.
Albany Times-Union |
04-10-2007 12:22 pm |
Industry News
Inmates Released from Youth Prisons on Heels of Texas Observer Storynew
Last week, the new board of the Texas Youth Commission (TYC) began freeing young inmates as part of the reform ushered in by the Observer's February investigation of sexual abuse at TYC prisons. TYC spokesman Jim Hurley tells the Dallas Morning News the agency plans on releasing 473 juveniles to family members or guardians. In what could be a sign of things to come, the attorney for one of the released prisoners plans on suing the state agency, the News reports.
Dallas Morning News |
04-10-2007 9:12 am |
Industry News
Village Voice Media Cracks Top 30 Newspaper Websitesnew
The VVM "channel," which includes all of the paper's sites, was the 27th most popular online newspaper destination in February, according to a Nielsen/NetRatings report. VVM's sites had 5,205,000 pageviews; a unique audience of 1,377,000; and the average user visit lasted four minutes, seven seconds.
Editor & Publisher |
04-10-2007 8:19 am |
Industry News
