AAN News
Catholics Protest Reader's Cartoonnew
          About 120 religious activists turned out 
last week to protest a "blasphemous" 
cartoon published in the Chicago 
Reader, reports The Illinois Leader, 
which bills itself "Illinois' Conservative 
News Source." The cartoon in question 
implied 
immoral behavior by the Virgin Mary, 
the pope and Jesus, the newspaper 
says.
          
        
      
    
    
      
        Illinois Leader  | 
      
      09-30-2002  11:41 am  | 
      Industry News    
      
    
    
      
    
    
    900-Number Funds Should Flow Again Soonnew
          Tele-Publishing International 
has reassured clients that money 
collected for online personals by bankrupt 
MCI should be distributed soon, Editor & 
Publisher reports. Many alternative 
newsweeklies use 900 numbers for voice 
personal ads. MCI will soon be the 
sole national carrier billing and 
collecting for these services.
          
        
      
    
    
      
        Editor & Publisher  | 
      
      09-30-2002  11:26 am  | 
      Industry News    
      
    
    
      Tags: Classified Advertising
    
    
    Miami Achieves Poorest City Statusnew
 
      
      
      
      
        
          According to no less an authority than the 2000 census, Miami
                                                                 is now the poorest big city in America.  In
                                                                 a two-part series of stories that begins this week,
                                                                Miami New Times' writers and editors explore Miami's fascinating shadow economy, a thriving black-market system that makes it possible
                                                                 to live one's life entirely off the books. They explain how
                                                                 public-housing fiascos have turned neighborhoods into ghost
                                                                 towns, with a crippling effect on the small businesses that
                                                                 depended on the residents -- even if those residents happened to
                                                                 be drug dealers.
          
        
      
    
    
    
    
    Mrs. Congeniality Pukes in Mercury's Kitchennew
 
      
      
      
      
        
          Mrs. Portland Mercury contestant Bethany Miller filled her stomach with "colorful, smelly and chunky" food items, chased with ipecac, then visited The Mercury's office in time to hurl in the kitchenette. Her beef: the mocking tone the alt-weekly took about its own contest. "People were really mean, and they didn't
                                       encourage an atmosphere of fun,"  Miller tells Willamette Week. [Illustration by Carson Ellis.]
          
        
      
    
    
      
        Willamette Week  | 
      
      09-30-2002  1:26 pm  | 
      Industry News    
      
    
    
      Tags: The Portland Mercury
    
    
    Turning in a "Terrorist " Taxi Drivernew
 
      
      
      
      
        
          Sarah Goodyear writes in The 
Village Voice about her short career 
as an FBI informant. She turned in a 
talkative Brooklyn cabbie, an Egyptian, 
who'd warned her in July 2001 that 
something bad was going to happen 
to America, even mentioning Osama 
bin Laden. The friendly accused doesn't 
hold his interrogation against her, and he 
wasn't detained, but Goodyear still feels 
the taint of her brush with TIPS.
          
        
      
    
    
    
    
    Board Meets in Pittsburgh
 
      
      
      
      
        
          Agrees to shorten convention
          
            (FULL STORY)
          
        
      
    
    
      
        AAN Staff  | 
      
      09-27-2002  2:23 pm  | 
      Association News    
      
    
    
    
    Anft Bids Farewell to City Papernew
          Media critic Michael Anft announces 
he is ending his  20-year on-and-off 
relationship with Baltimore City 
Paper and retiring "to flip through 
heretofore-unread copies of The New 
Yorker and Harper's." Anft takes a parting 
shot at  "the mostly uninspired local 
product we unfortunate 
viewers/readers/listeners have spewed at 
us."
          
        
      
    
    
      
        Baltimore City Paper  | 
      
      09-26-2002  9:59 am  | 
      Industry News    
      
    
    
      
    
    
    Cleveland Free Times Turns 10new
 
      
      
      
      
        
          Eric Broder, managing editor at 
the Cleveland Free Times, which 
turns 10 this week, remembers a 
time when the paper could hardly fill ad 
space. "The issue is 24 pages, 
consisting mainly of editorial. You don't 
want that. You want ads in there, and 
plenty of 'em. But this was the first issue. 
It's tough enough to sell ad space for a 
publication, and tougher yet for one that 
doesn't exist." Broder reflects on the last 
decade of a paper that was one 
business deal away from never 
happening.
          
        
      
    
    
      
        Cleveland Free Times  | 
      
      09-26-2002  2:51 pm  | 
      Industry News    
      
    
    
      Tags: Cleveland Free Times, Eric Broder
    
    
    Back to Iraq: A Special Reportnew
 
      
      
      
      
        
          How big a danger to our planet does Saddam Hussein really pose? Or George Bush? Various
perspectives on what could be America’s latest battleground are explored in  L.A. Weekly's report on Iraq. Two former weapons inspectors give their wildly different views on Saddam: Greg Goldin interviews Terence Taylor, chief
U.N. weapons inspector in 1997,who sees a grave threat. Jon Wiener hears opposite views from Scott Ritter, a senior inspector from 1991 to 1997. Richard Falk makes the argument against the war; Ian Williams takes on the
anti-war movement. Marc B. Haefele attends an L.A. gathering of World Federalists who
preach a unified world theory. And Christine Pelisek shares the scant military records of those who want a war.
          
        
      
    
    
    
    
    New Editor at Illinois Times
          Illinois Times has hired Patrick 
Arden, former managing editor of the 
Chicago Reader, as editor.  The paper 
has also moved to a new address, 
redesigned its cover, consolidated 
entertainment listings, and changed its 
tag line. “The capital city’s newsweekly” 
expects fourth-quarter performance to be 
strong, says Associate Publisher 
Sharon Whalen.
          
            (FULL STORY)
          
        
      
    
    
      
        AAN Staff  | 
      
      09-25-2002  1:52 pm  | 
      Industry News    
      
    
    
      
    
    
    LA Weekly Ad Staff Consider Unionizingnew
          Advertising staff at LA Weekly are to vote Friday on whether to join the union that already represents editorial employees at the alt-weekly. Editorial staff are shocked that management is resisting extending union representation to ad staff because the paper has always had an ardently pro-union editorial stance, reports the Los Angeles Times.  Publisher Beth Sestanovich, however, tells the Times she pushed for a vote rather than the more pro-forma card check organizing because "while
                         our editorial policy is pro-union, it also is
                         pro-democracy."
          
        
      
    
    
      
        Los Angeles Times  | 
      
      09-25-2002  10:01 am  | 
      Industry News    
      
    
    
      Tags: Management, L.A. Weekly
    
    
    The Oil Motive Behind the Afghan Warnew
 
      
      
      
      
        
          The mainstream media in the United 
States has ignored wire service and 
European newspaper coverage of 
long-standing plans to run an oil 
pipeline from Central Asia to the Indian 
Ocean through Afghanistan, Ted 
Rall reports in an exclusive article on 
Philadelphia City Paper's Web site. "The 
'war on terrorism' was less about fighting 
terrorism, or finding the perpetrators of 
9-11, than about bombing Afghanistan" to 
secure a stable route for the pipeline, Rall 
writes.
          
        
      
    
    
    
    
    Featurewell.com Syndicate Turns Twonew
          AAN Associate Member 
Featurewell.com 
celebrates its second birthday having 
built its reputation on 
solid relationships with both writers and 
some 900 publishers, Tech Central 
Station reports.  The online mag says 
Featurewell.com's sales are about 
$200,000 a year, and CEO David 
Wallis projects they will hit $1 million by 
the syndicate's fifth year.
          
        
      
    
    
      
        Tech Central Station  | 
      
      09-24-2002  1:35 pm  | 
      Industry News    
      
    
    
      Tags: Featurewell.com
    
    
    