AAN News
The Unair-Conditioned Amtrak Nightmarenew
 
      
      
      
      
        
          John Anderson's Amtrak odyssey started with a dream of seeing America "from the rolling level of a train car, solidly planted on earth," he writes in Miami New Times. The Sunset Limited Orlando to Los Angeles dream unravels in packed train stations, derailments, mysterious delays, moving backward, prefab muffins, broken air conditioning and finally a two-day forced layover in San Antonio with Julie the computer.
          
        
      
    
    
    
    
    Tennessee Weekly Closes
          Our City Weekly of Clarksville, 
Tenn., twice an applicant for AAN 
membership, has fallen victim to the "War 
on Terrorism," which has emptied this 
military town of a third of its population, 
says Publisher Jan Massey. In 
its seven-year history, Our City survived a 
direct hit by an F-4 tornado, 
embezzlement by an employee, and 
aggressive competition from a 
Gannett-owned daily newspaper. Its last 
issue was Aug. 28.
          
            (FULL STORY)
          
        
      
    
    
      
        Ann Hinch  | 
      
      09-18-2002  10:54 am  | 
      Industry News    
      
    
    
      Tags: Management
    
    
    Medill Conferees to Rock Out in Chi-Town
          Saturday night at the Beat Kitchen
          
            (FULL STORY)
          
        
      
    
    
      
        AAN Staff  | 
      
      09-18-2002  3:29 pm  | 
      Association News    
      
    
    
      
    
    
    MusicfestNW Attendance Climbsnew
 
      
      
      
      
        
          Portland's "club-crawl" music festival 
rebounded this year from 2001, when 
terrorism dampened national spirits, The 
Oregonian reports. Richard 
Meeker, publisher of Willamette 
Week, MusicfestNW's main sponsor, 
estimates that attendance and 
revenue rose 20 percent to 25 
percent.  "I think it's a great thing that 
we've been able to grow this event this 
much, even in this economy," Meeker tells 
the daily. The bulk of the proceeds go to 
First Octave, a non-profit music education 
program.
          
        
      
    
    
      
        The Oregonian  | 
      
      09-17-2002  4:36 pm  | 
      Industry News    
      
    
    
    
    The War on Civil Rightsnew
 
      
      
      
      
        
          "George Bush and John Ashcroft 
used the Sept. 11 tragedy to shred 
the Bill of Rights and begin the 
greatest period of political repression 
since the McCarthy era," Executive 
Editor Tim Redmond writes in the 
San Francisco Bay Guardian. "The 
greatest enemy to the American way of 
life may not be al-Qaeda or its foreign 
sponsors. The greatest threat may be 
our own government.," he writes.
          
        
      
    
    
    
    
    Bill Davis Named Advertising Director of OC Weekly
      
        OC Weekly  | 
      
      09-17-2002  1:17 pm  | 
      Press Releases    
      
    
    
      Tags: Management, OC Weekly
    
    
    Creative Loafing Editor John Sugg Running for Congressnew
 
      
      
      
      
        
          "Because I am most decidedly not a politician, I am best qualified for
                                                            political office," says John Sugg, senior editor, Creative Loafing Atlanta, in announcing his candidacy for the 7th Congressional District. Sugg, who is running a write-in campaign as a Whig, says fellow journalists shouldn't question his political activism. "Your bosses have neutered real journalism by creating the cult of objectivity --
                                    passionless journalism that is beholden to the status quo." Sugg is challenging "ho-hum" Democrat Mike Berlon and John Linder, "a water-carrier for the most corrupt elements of corporate America," he writes in his "Fishwrapper" column.
          
        
      
    
    
      
        Creative Loafing Atlanta  | 
      
      09-16-2002  5:37 pm  | 
      Industry News    
      
    
    
      
    
    
    Chronicle Recognizes Bay Guardian's Long PG&E Battlenew
 
      
      
      
      
        
          The San Francisco Bay Guardian wrote its first article about PG&E's monopoly on power in the Bay area in 1969, not long after the paper was founded. The San Francisco Chronicle looks back on this "lone, frequently bombastic crusade
          to make the city establish the municipal power utility Congress intended" and how the daily papers in San Francisco have opposed public power.  The article quotes Stephen Buel, editor of the East Bay Express, as saying, "The sad fact is that a lot of the Bay Guardian's criticisms of PG&E
          are very apt, but the way in which the paper hammers home its message makes it get lost because it is so mind-numbingly repetitive."
          
        
      
    
    
      
        San Francisco Chronicle  | 
      
      09-16-2002  5:03 pm  | 
      Industry News    
      
    
    
      
    
    
    Rats in Goofy's Kitchennew
 
      
      
      
      
        
          While Mickey Mouse entertains diners at a Disneyland hotel restaurant, rats
may be wreaking havoc in the kitchen. OC Weekly's Nick Schou talks to employees, some of whom have filed claims against the hotel for a variety of illnesses they say are connected to filthy kitchens -- live rats, rat droppings, toxic molds and backed up drains. "When they started all this expansion at Disneyland, it brought us all the rats," one former employee tells Schou. "There were also
        roaches and worms."
          
        
      
    
    
    
    
    Chicago Trib Mulls Paper for MTV Crowdnew
          Taking a page from Gannett, the Chicago Tribune is seriously considering launching a five-day-a-week tabloid aimed at the elusive 18- to 34-year-old urban reader, the Tribune's Jim Kirk reports. "The new Tribune paper would be aimed at the same demographic that has made
                 the city's free alternative papers, such as the Reader and New City, successful," Kirk writes. Gannett is launching "alternative" weeklies in target markets.
          
        
      
    
    
      
        Chicago Tribune  | 
      
      09-13-2002  9:27 am  | 
      Industry News    
      
    
    
      
    
    
    