AAN News
L.A. Weekly Lays Off A Handful of Staffersnew
LA Observed is reporting that the Weekly has laid off longtime editor and columnist Marc Cooper, managing editor Sharan Street, copy chief David Caplan, staff writer Matthew Fleischer, senior designer Laura Steele and assistant to the editor Pandora Young.
LA Observed |
10-31-2008 2:39 pm |
Industry News
How I Got That Story: Jeffrey Anderson
In the twelfth installment of this year's "How I Got That Story" series, Jeffrey Anderson talks about his multi-part investigative series "The Town the Law Forgot," which uncovered shocking abuses of power by government officials in Los Angeles County. He tells Sam Stoker how he started on this thread, and how he kept at it until it all started to unravel for him. Anderson, who wrote the series for L.A. Weekly but has since changed coast and is a staffer at Baltimore City Paper, also gives some advice to anyone undertaking an investigation. "The main thing is you just can't plan things out in advance," he says. "Things don't occur logically sometimes. You just need to be ready to revive things you have let go of. You just can't plan it."
(FULL STORY)
AAN News |
10-30-2008 3:54 pm |
Association News
L.A. Weekly Theater Critic's Play Hits Off-Broadwaynew
"There's much to admire in the first act of Steven Leigh Morris's intelligent but uneven new play," says New York Times theater critic Rachel Saltz. "Beachwood Drive," written by Morris and based on a true story, has at its center a Ukrainian prostitute enslaved by the Russian mob and then caught by the police in a sting. Though Saltz praises the first act, she says that Morris "gets tripped up in the second act ... hitting his themes too hard and making his play seem more literary contrivance than living, breathing drama." The play is at New York's Abingdon Theater through Nov. 16.
The New York Times |
10-30-2008 11:52 am |
Industry News
Jonathan Gold's Bro Asks: What About Food's Environmental Impact?new
Mark Gold is executive director of Heal the Bay, a Southern California environmental nonprofit, which can lead to some interesting exchanges with his brother, LA Weekly's Pulitzer-winning food writer. "I am already anticipating the nasty glare I will inevitably get from my marine-scientist brother," J. Gold wrote recently in a report on eating whale in Korea, "[who] has dedicated his life to pretty much the opposite of this." On his blog, M. Gold wonders: "If only Jonathan focused on sustainable seafood for a year, imagine the positive impact he'd have on local restaurants and the dietary choices of the food obsessed." But the food writer (who recently signed on for a column at Gourmet) gets the last word (thus far) in his brother's blog comments. "I stress the local-sustainable-organic trope in my columns almost to the point of self-ridicule," he writes, "and I would as soon amputate a toe as buy meat or fish from a supermarket."
LA Observed |
10-29-2008 9:27 am |
Industry News
L.A. Weekly Helps Solve String of Arson Firesnew
While investigating a string of rubbish fires started in trashcans near bus shelters this summer, Los Angeles Fire Department arson investigators caught a break when they found a witness who saw a man with a copy of the Weekly sticking out of his back pocket leaving the scene. Arson investigator John Little found the alleged arsonist strolling down the street, carrying a ripped out section of the Weekly in his back pocket. Little says he also found a "time delayed device" wrapped in burnt pieces of the paper in the trashcan. "It was a real CSI type thing," says Little. "We recovered newspaper out of the trash container and opened it up and saw a matchbook device. The section that was ripped out matched the papers in his back pocket ... He would set the newspaper down there and go across the street and watch." The 64-year-old suspect has been charged with arson. "And to think I believed copies of the newspaper flew off the racks because our readers couldn't get enough of our Calendar section," writes Christine Pelisek. "Guess again!"
L.A. Weekly |
09-25-2008 9:11 am |
Industry News
Tags: Circulation, L.A. Weekly
LA Offers Huge Reward for Serial Killer Revealed by LA Weeklynew
In response to a four-month investigation by the Weekly that last week revealed the existence of an active serial killer who has been linked to the deaths of 11 people, the Los Angeles City Council voted yesterday to reward $200,000 to any person who supplies information leading to his arrest and conviction. The council also approved a record-high $500,000 if the clues lead to more than one conviction. The killer was dubbed the "Grim Sleeper" by the Weekly, since "he took a 13-year break before bizarrely resuming his slayings," but as the paper reports, not everyone is fond of the nickname. Comedian Patton Oswalt, for one, ridiculed the name while he guest-hosted a radio show, saying it was the dumbest, least-creepy name for a serial killer.
LA Weekly |
09-04-2008 8:28 am |
Industry News
LA Weekly Announces Lineup for Third Annual Detour Music Festivalnew
Billboard |
07-31-2008 8:58 am |
Industry News
Tags: Marketing, L.A. Weekly
Earthquake Hits Southern California, Alt-Weekly Offices Feel It
A little before noon yesterday, a 5.4 magnitude earthquake hit Southern California, with an epicenter 29 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles, according to the US Geological Survey. The quake, which was the largest in SoCal in more than a decade but apparently caused no major damage, was felt in AAN-member offices from San Diego to Santa Barbara, judging by a quick perusal of blogs. "[It] felt like I was standing on a rocking waterbed for at least 12 seconds. The building swayed back and forth. A large corkboard fell off my office wall," the OC Weekly's R. Scott Moxley reports. "An energy drink can stupidly placed (by me) on top of a file cabinet flew three feet in the air. The staff quickly evacuated the building and found phone lines dead." Up in Culver City at LA Weekly's offices, Mark Mauer notes: "The new LA Weekly building shakes like a leaf (at least around my desk) every time a car enters or leaves our garage, so it took a few extra seconds to figure out this was an actual earthquake and not just an SUV trying to find a parking space." The Santa Barbara Independent's Matt Kettman reports feeling a "long, rolling sensation," while San Diego CityBeat's Kinsee Morgan wins the award for brevity, simply noting the quake was the "biggest one I've felt yet."
AAN News |
07-30-2008 8:30 am |
Industry News
Former LA Weekly Writer Talks About New HBO Seriesnew
After writing a couple of significant freelance pieces for the Weekly, Evan Wright embedded with the U.S. Marines' in 2003 as they crossed the Kuwaiti border at the beginning of the Iraq War. Wright wrote a book about the experience called "Generation Kill," and the creators of the widely lauded HBO series "The Wire" made the book into a seven-episode miniseries that premiered last night on the pay-cable network.
LA Weekly |
07-14-2008 3:19 pm |
Industry News
Tags: Editorial, L.A. Weekly
LA Weekly Co-founder Pete Kameron Diesnew
The entrepreneur and philanthropist died peacefully on June 29 at the age of 87 at his home in Beverly Hills. He was a principal original investor in the Weekly, served as chairman for many years, and also co-founded LA Style as a sister publication in the 1980s. "Without Pete Kameron, LA Weekly probably wouldn't exist," writes former Weekly publisher Michael Sigman. "And instead of spending 19 years at the paper, I might not have lasted three months."
LA Weekly |
07-07-2008 9:18 am |
Industry News
Tags: Management, L.A. Weekly
Alt-Weeklies Well-Represented in LA Press Club Awardsnew
When the Los Angeles Press Club announced the 50th annual Southern California Journalism Awards on Saturday night, five AAN papers and an Associate Member were honored. LA Weekly took home 16 awards, including first place in Editorial Cartoon, Entertainment Feature, Online Entertainment, News/Feature/Commentary and Signed Commentary. OC Weekly won a total of five awards, including first place for Entertainment Reviews/Criticism/Column, Group Blog, and Sports. Ventura County Reporter received a first-place prize for News Feature, while Los Angeles CityBeat won three awards and Pasadena Weekly won two. Associate Member Amy Alkon, aka the Advice Goddess, won four awards, including first place for Column.
Los Angeles Press Club |
06-23-2008 12:36 pm |
Honors & Achievements
L.A. Weekly Film Critic Tapped for Sydney Film Festival Jurynew
The Weekly's Scott Foundas will join Jury president Gillian Armstrong, Hong Kong producer Nansun Shi and Iranian director/writer/producer Majid Majidi, and Australian actress Essie Davis in determining the winner of the Sydney Film Prize for new directions in film at the 55th Sydney Film Festival, set to take place June 4-22.
Sydney Film Festival Press Release |
06-04-2008 8:51 am |
Honors & Achievements
L.A. Weekly and Phoenix New Times Win Maggie Awardsnew
The Maggie Awards, presented annually by the Western Publications Association, honor publishing excellence among magazines in the Western U.S. L.A. Weekly was selected as the best tabloid/consumer publication for its Sept. 7 issue, and also prevailed in two other categories: Best Fiction in the Trade & Consumer category for "One Hundred Percent," and Best News Story in the Consumer category, for "The End of Murder." Phoenix New Times won for Best Public Service Series or Article in the Trade & Consumer category for its investigations into Maricopa County's "assault" on the paper.
Western Publications Association |
05-22-2008 9:41 am |
Honors & Achievements
L.A. Weekly Wins Five Best of the West Awardsnew
The Weekly's winnings in the annual awards "designed to reward journalistic excellence" in the 13 states West of the Rocky Mountains included two first-place awards: Nikki Finke's "Deadline Hollywood" column in Special Topic Column Writing, and Tim Foley's "The Case of the Dogged Detective" in Illustration. "Nikki Finke is a badass. Period," say the judges comments. "Good stuff, written with passion and an utter disregard whether any of the studio heads, or anyone in 'the industry,' will ever buy her lunch." The judges say Foley's "stylistic comic book illustration, creative use of color and the comic book-like typography all worked so perfectly well together in this illustration ... Foley did a fantastic job of bringing it all together."
First Amendment Funding Inc. Press Release |
05-16-2008 9:34 am |
Honors & Achievements
L.A. Weekly Eliminates #2 Editor Positionnew
Deputy editor Joe Donnelly's position was cut by Village Voice Media, LA Observed reports. "I can tell you that Joe Donnelly was one of the reasons the L.A. Weekly has been so strong over the past few years," Weekly editor Laurie Ochoa says. "The good news is that Joe plans on doing a lot more writing, much of which we plan to publish. He's been the guiding force behind so many books through the years -- I think it's time he writes his own book." According to LA Observed, Donnelly will do just that -- he plans on writing a novel. Also, longtime copy editor Sheila Beaumont, who has worked at the paper for 26 years, has retired rather than make the commute to Culver City, where the Weekly is moving next week.
LA Observed |
04-24-2008 10:52 am |
Industry News
