AAN News
Alt-Weekly Political Columnist Blogs About Cancer Diagnosisnew
Seven Days' Peter Freyne was recently diagnosed with lymphoma and immediately began chemotherapy treatments. He blogged about this turn of events prior to being admitted to the hospital, and his post has attracted dozens of comments, making it a virtual get-well-soon card. Most of the comments are from readers and fans, but several state politicians and even the deputy police chief of Vermont's largest city have weighed in to wish him well, says Seven Days' online editor, Cathy Resmer. Freyne has been writing about Vermont politics since the state's new, socialist senator Bernie Sanders won his first term as mayor of Burlington in 1981. He brought his popular column to Seven Days shortly after the paper was founded in 1995.
Seven Days |
01-30-2007 1:57 pm |
Industry News
Wall Street Journal to Offer 'Rub 'n Sniff' Adsnew
Advertising Age |
01-30-2007 7:29 pm |
Industry News
Tags: Management, Retail Advertising
City Newspaper Launches New, Upgraded Website
City Newspaper Press Release |
01-30-2007 5:19 pm |
Press Releases
Tags: City Newspaper
Georgia Straight Story Leads to Conflict of Interest Chargesnew
The New Democratic Party launched an attack on the head of the British Columbia's provincial government last week, based on information it learned in an article published in the venerable Vancouver alt-weekly, reports the National Post. In the article, the Straight's Russ Francis reported that Premier Gordon Campbell (pictured) and his wife own shares of stock in mining giant Alcan Inc., which does business with the state-owned water utility.
National Post |
01-29-2007 4:43 pm |
Industry News
Expert: Social Media "Search Engines" Deserve Publishers' Attentionnew
User-driven social content sites like Digg and Reddit are becoming "traffic powerhouses you can't ignore," says search-marketing expert Danny Sullivan. In fact, their rise has given birth to a new discipline that Web publishers now must learn to master: Social media optimization. Sullivan argues that the social content sites, although they are not traditional search engines, are now more important in terms of driving traffic than non-Google search engines like Yahoo!
Search Engine Land |
01-29-2007 4:03 pm |
Industry News
Bay Guardian San Francisco's "Most Politically Influential Publication"new
So claims H. Brown, announcing his 6th Annual Bulldog Awards on the Web site of the Fog City Journal, which calls itself "an online news organization" focusing on Bay Area news. "More balding hippies carry (the Bay Guardian's) Election Day crib sheet into polls than any other rag," explains Brown, who gives his own publication the nod at number two. Brown also says SF Weekly columnist Matt Smith is the city's third-best political writer, even though he's "lost a step" and "(s)eems nuts at times." Smith is brilliant, says Brown: "He can see yesterday, today and tomorrow as one multi-valved heart fed by money, greed and bigotry."
Fog City Journal |
01-29-2007 3:32 pm |
Honors & Achievements
Boise Weekly Intervenes in Hospital-Records Casenew
The AAN-member weekly is seeking the release of state inspection reports on Intermountain Hospital's troubled residential treatment center for teens, reports The Idaho Statesman. The records were sealed last week when a state court judge approved the privately owned psychiatric hospital's request for a temporary injunction preventing their release.
The Idaho Statesman |
01-29-2007 3:11 pm |
Industry News
Tags: Management, Boise Weekly
Newspaper Blogs Are Instant "Letters To The Editor"new
The Center for Media Research |
01-29-2007 4:09 pm |
Industry News
Tags: Editorial, Management
Founding Editor of OC Weekly Steps Downnew
Will Swaim is the second Village Voice Media editor to resign this week over "philosophical differences" with the company's new owners. OC Weekly employees tell the Los Angeles Times that they were expecting the resignation, "because it was apparent that (Swaim's) autonomy to run Orange County's only alternative newspaper had eroded since it was purchased last year by the New Times publishing chain." Swaim tells the Times that his differences with the new owners were on "the business side," and did not pertain to editorial content. "They run a very complicated organization and want to have standardization across all 18 markets," he says. "I don't argue whether it's dumb or wrong. It's just not my way." CORRECTION: VVM has papers in 17 markets.
Los Angeles Times |
01-26-2007 4:03 pm |
Industry News
Bay Guardian: Newspapers Blow Story on MediaNews/Hearst Rulingnew
"The Bay Guardian and Media Alliance have succeeded in getting about 90 percent of the previously secret records in the (MediaNews/Hearst antitrust) case opened to public review," says editor Tim Redmond (pictured). "But you wouldn’t know that from reading the news stories in the monopoly dailies that the suit challenges." The San Francisco Chronicle and the Associated Press both botched the story, claims Redmond, because they ignored the fact that, among other things, the newspaper chains immediately agreed to surrender most of their secret documents when the Bay Guardian and its non-profit partner filed a motion to unseal the records in the case. The Associated Press reporter admitted his mistake, Redmond says: “I plead guilty to leaving out the background,” David Kravets told Redmond, who says the inaccuracies are emblematic of the "monopoly media world of the Bay Area, 2007."
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
01-26-2007 3:34 pm |
Industry News
The Stranger Sells Review Space!
"Offbeat Bride" author Ariel Meadow Stallings and alt-rockers Half Zaftig were thrilled when they received positive reviews in "Seattle's snarkiest alt-weekly." But they weren't surprised, since the critiques were purchased as part of the paper's annual Strangercrombie pay-for-play program, whereby creative types bid for review space in auctions designed to raise money for Northwest Harvest, a local hunger relief agency.
Ariel Meadow Stallings | Half Zaftig | The Stranger |
01-26-2007 2:50 pm |
Industry News
When Will Web Advertising Deliver On its Promise?new
Although an increasing number of marketers are shifting dollars to the Internet, surveys suggest that readers still vastly prefer print ads, says Tacoda System's Dave Morgan, who notes that online publishers "are still giving consumers a terrible experience when it comes to the vast majority of ads" placed on their Web sites. Morgan explains why he thinks the online advertising experience will catch up to print by the end of 2008. MORE MORGAN: Why online brand advertising won't go the way of automated auctions.
MediaPost |
01-26-2007 2:24 pm |
Industry News
L.A. Times Shifts Focus, Combines Print and Web Operationsnew
According to a report in the Times, newly installed editor James O'Shea underscored the importance of creating "savvy multimedia journalists" in a gathering of employees yesterday, where he announced the creation of a new position, editor for innovation, and the launch of crash-course "Internet 101" training for editors, reporters and photographers. Nevertheless, O'Shea emphasized that gains in online advertising dollars haven't been enough to offset the loss of print revenues: "For every $2 we lost, we are recouping only about $1." Presently, the Times' Web operation has 18 employees, compared to the Washington Post's 200, and 50 at the New York Times.
Los Angeles Times |
01-25-2007 7:43 pm |
Industry News
Tags: Editorial, Electronic Publishing
Alt-Weeklies Reveal Sen. Feinstein in Conflict on Military Contractsnew
Metro Silicon Valley and North Bay Bohemian report this week that Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s husband was a major beneficiary of military appropriations blessed by a subcommittee that she headed, parent company Metro Newspapers announced today in a press release. Feinstein (D-Calif.) approved billions of dollars in military construction expenditures awarded to two firms that were controlled by an investment group headed by the senator’s spouse, financier Richard C. Blum, according to the investigative story by Metro's Peter Byrne. The story "examines the many ways in which Sen. Feinstein committed repeated breaches of ethics as (the subcommittee) chairwoman or ranking member from 2001-2005," according to the release.
Metro Newspapers Press Release |
01-25-2007 7:17 pm |
Industry News
Beauty of Federal Court Ruling in the Eye of the Beholder
U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston yesterday ruled on a motion filed last month by the San Francisco Bay Guardian and the non-profit Media Alliance. The plaintiffs asked the court to unseal documents in an antitrust lawsuit seeking to overturn a Bay Area newspaper deal between Hearst Corp. and MediaNews Group Inc. "Victory!" proclaims the Bay Guardian, which reports Illston ruled that "many of the documents" will be made public. Not so fast, says Associated Press in the pages of MediaNews' San Jose Mercury News. AP reports that while "portions of two documents" will be unsealed, the plaintiffs "failed to convince (Illston) to open key documents" in the case.
San Francisco Bay Guardian | AP via San Jose Mercury News |
01-25-2007 1:19 pm |
Legal News
