AAN News
FOIA Report Issued, Hearing Scheduled
The Congressional Research Service issued a new report (PDF) last week on the history of the Freedom of Information Act and related legislative reform efforts. Meanwhile, the newly formed House Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives has scheduled a hearing for Thursday, Feb. 15, on a FOIA reform bill that is supported by AAN and the other members of the Sunshine in Government Initiative, a Washington-based coalition of media organizations committed to promoting open-government policies. Rep. John Yarmuth, the former owner of AAN member Louisville Eccentric Observer, is a member of the Information Policy subcommittee.
AAN Staff |
02-08-2007 5:23 pm |
Legal News
Tags: Editorial, Management
Pasadena Weekly Series Wins National Awardnew
Deputy Editor Joe Piasecki's five-part series on foster care and homeless youth, "Throwaway Kids," won a first-place award in the National Low Income Housing Coalition's first-ever Cushing Niles Dolbeare Media Awards, the group announced on Tuesday. Piasecki's series, the publication of which spanned over a month and 16,000 words, received the $2,500 prize in the Non-Daily Newspaper or Magazine category.
Pasadena Weekly |
02-08-2007 4:14 pm |
Honors & Achievements
The Stranger's Keck on The Onion's Originsnew
In a preview of an on-campus panel discussion about The Onion, Tim Keck tells a student newspaper that he and Chris Johnson (now publisher of Albuequrque's Weekly Alibi) started the satirical newspaper in their dorm room in 1988 in honor of Keck's hometown paper. "At the time, (the Oshkosh Northwestern) was really bad, and the headlines were unwittingly hilarious," Keck says. He also tells the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire's The Spectator that Johnson's uncle came up with the name, which derives from the steady diet of onion sandwiches that penury compelled the co-founders to consume during their college days.
The Spectator |
02-08-2007 12:02 pm |
Industry News
Hearst Rolls Out Wireless Magazine Sitesnew
Online Media Daily |
02-08-2007 4:10 pm |
Industry News
Folio Weekly Editor Back After Bout with Cancer
Anne Schindler returned to work last week after spending nearly two months out of the office battling cervical cancer. Schindler, who joined the Jacksonville, Fla., alt-weekly in 1995 and was named editor in 2002, received a clean bill of health from her doctors, who told her that surgery had completely removed the cancer. "It's almost like I was never gone. My staff covered for me beautifully," Schindler tells AAN News. "Nobody missed me in the least. And I've got this really cool
scar now."
AAN Staff |
02-07-2007 4:38 pm |
Industry News
Savage Love 'Raising Eyebrows' in Eugenenew
The addition of the widely syndicated sex-advice column to the Eugene Weekly is "stirring up controversy," according to KEZI-TV 9 News. The local ABC affiliate, which led with the story on Friday evening, took to the streets to get reactions; two of the three locals interviewed didn't have a problem with the column, with one woman offering, "I lived in New York City for many years. I'm way beyond ever being offended by anything." KEZI also talked to Eugene Weekly editor Ted Taylor (pictured), who wondered: "What's the big deal? They are just words about sex. Why not be outraged by what I consider the real moral issues?" Director of Advertising and Marketing Bill Shreve tells AAN News the paper picked up Savage Love in October, and e-mails and calls to the Weekly have been split about evenly between supporters and opponents of the column. He also notes that the whole thing has "been good for business."
KEZI-TV 9 News |
02-06-2007 4:06 pm |
Industry News
Keach Hagey Appointed Village Voice 'Press Clips' Columnistnew
Poynter Online |
02-06-2007 4:26 pm |
Industry News
Tags: Editorial, The Village Voice
Village Voice Film Critic J. Hoberman Joins Harvard Faculty
Village Voice Media Press Release |
02-06-2007 10:58 am |
Press Releases
Study: Importance of Community 'Citizen Journalism' Sites Growingnew
Editor & Publisher |
02-06-2007 10:41 am |
Industry News
Fictional Alt-Weeklies Figure in Two New Novels
In Ann Hood's "The Knitting Circle," the protagonist, after the sudden death of her five-year-old daughter, drifts away from her life, including "her job at an alternative newspaper," only to find solace in -- you guessed it -- a local knitting circle. No word from Newsday's review on if she ever rekindles the passion for her job, post-knit-revelation. The alternative weekly's role in Dan Martin's
"Journey Back" couldn't be any different, as "paranoid schizophrenic and recovering drug addict Richard Jones" escapes from an institution for the criminally insane, drives from New York to California, changes his identity, and lands a job as an alt-weekly writer, according to a review on BlogCritics.org. Once on the job, he tracks down a story on a secret drug experiment designed to help addicts and alcoholics, but to get full access, he has to become part of the test program.
Newsday | BlogCritics.org |
02-05-2007 4:13 pm |
Industry News
Tags: Editorial
Correction: Georgia Straight and Monday Magazine Report Conflict
Last week we reported that Vancouver alt-weekly Georgia Straight broke the story that British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell and his wife own shares of stock in mining giant Alcan Inc., which does business with the state-owned water utility. In fact, the article also appeared in Monday Magazine, an AAN-member paper that is published in Victoria, the seat of the provincial government. Russ Francis, who wrote the story, contributes to both papers. Blame Canada? No, blame Canada.com, the Web site of the National Post, which is where we found the partially erroneous story.
AAN News |
02-02-2007 3:45 pm |
Industry News
Village Voice Reporter Named Jack Newfield Visiting Professornew
Tom Robbins is the second distinguished journalist to occupy the post at Hunter College, established to honor Newfield. Robbins, a former colleague of Newfield's at both the Voice and the Daily News, will teach a course entitled "Urban Investigative Reporting" and will also assist students in researching and writing a lengthy article or series of articles focused on an aspect of city life. "Whether tomorrow's journalists are writing online or on paper, we need more of them who understand and share Jack Newfield's passion for justice and the city he lived in," Robbins says in a press release.
Hunter College |
02-02-2007 2:22 pm |
Honors & Achievements
AP Waves White Flag, Issues Hearst-MediaNews 'Clarification'new
After taking a pounding for a good week from the San Francisco Bay Guardian, the mainstream-media syndication service finally admitted yesterday that its earlier story, about a judge's ruling on the SFBG-Media Alliance motion seeking access to documents in the Hearst-MediaNews antitrust suit, left out some important details. "The story should have noted that Denver-based MediaNews Group Inc. and The Hearst Corp ... had earlier voluntarily released some records that had been filed under seal," AP now says. Most importantly, SFBG, AP, and Bay Area papers owned by Hearst and MediaNews report that those records, and other documents unsealed by the judge in response to SFBG's motion, demonstrate the two companies have had a cozy relationship for decades, even before they consummated the
complex deal that led to the antitrust suit.
Associated Press via San Jose Mercury News |
02-02-2007 11:35 am |
Industry News
Will the Aussies Buy Fort Worth Weekly?new
The Texas alt-weekly recently published a cover story criticizing the Trans-Texas Corridor, arguing "that the project could wipe towns off the map, gobble up about a million acres of farm and ranch land, crumble the state’s current highway system, and gouge motorists with tolls as high as 44 cents a mile." An item on the paper's Web site this week notes that another Texas publisher which also wrote critically of the project was acquired for "upward of $100 million" by Macquarie Media Group of Australia, which is a sister company to Macquarie Infrastructure Group, one of the world’s major toll road operators. "Surely Fort Worth Weekly publisher Lee Newquist’s phone will be ringing any second now with a call from Australia and an offer of millions of dollars," predicts the paper's Static column.
Fort Worth Weekly |
02-02-2007 10:27 am |
Industry News
Tags: Editorial, Fort Worth Weekly
More Edit-Staff Departures at Village Voice Media
The latest to leave are OC Weekly feature editor Rebecca Schoenkopf, whose Commie Girl column won last year's big-paper AltWeekly Award for best political column, and City Pages music critic Jim Walsh, who served two stints at the Minneapolis alt-weekly, the latest beginning in 2003. OC Register columnist Frank Mickadeit reports that Schoenkopf has "been ready to leave the Weekly for some time, simply because she needed a change" and that "her dream job would be editor-in-chief of an alternative weekly somewhere."
In her farewell column, Schoenkopf puts the paper's recent ownership change into context: "It could have been worse: Dean Singleton could have bought our newspaper. At least this way, we still get to call people twats." (OC Weekly music editor Chris Ziegler also left the paper, Schoenkopf notes in her column.)
OC Register | OC Weekly | St. Paul Pioneer Press |
02-01-2007 9:23 pm |
Industry News
