AAN News

Baltimore City Paper Exposes Plagiarism By Sun Columnist

Gadi Dechter, who writes the City Paper's biweekly Media Circus column, found several examples of similar language between Michael Olesker's columns in the Baltimore Sun and work by other writers in the Sun, the New York Times and the Washingon Post. Dechter decided to pursue the story after a Dec. 24 correction of an Olesker column referred to a failure of attribution rather than plagiarism. The Sun's city editor initially told Dechter that there would be no further investigation of Olesker, so Dechter and a research assistant took on the process of checking language from Olesker's past columns against the LexisNexis database. "There was something unusual in the correction, as if it were just a mistake," Dechter says. "Olesker is kind of an institution here in Baltimore, so I set about checking it out." A story in the Sun this morning announced that Olesker had resigned.
01-04-2006  10:19 am  |  Industry News

Craigslist Not Blocking Major Crawlersnew

Search Engine Watch  |  01-04-2006  8:23 am  |  Industry News

Carmakers' Year in Reviewnew

Detroit Free Press  |  01-04-2006  8:15 am  |  Industry News

City Hall Columnist for NOW Magazine Becomes Mayor's Media Flack

Don Wanagas, a regular writer for AAN member paper NOW Magazine in Toronto, announced in December that he would become media relations director for Mayor David Miller's re-election campaign. "After all my time as a journalist, I thought it was time to see what the other side is about," Wanagas told The Globe and Mail.
01-03-2006  3:30 pm  |  Industry News

Brant Houston and Ron Nixon To Lead IRE Sessions at AAN Conferences

The upcoming AAN regional conferences will each include a "Better Watchdog Workshop" organized by Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE). The AAN West workshop on Jan. 28 will be led by Brant Houston, executive director of IRE, professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, and author of "Computer-Assisted Reporting: A Practical Guide." The AAN East workshop on Feb. 18 will be led by Ron Nixon, projects editor on the New York Times computer-assisted reporting team. Nixon led an IRE session at AAN West two years ago, when he was computer-assisted reporting editor for The Minneapolis Star Tribune, and attendees described it as "worth repeating." Both workshops will cover effective searches on the Internet, cultivation of sources and interviewing, getting the most out of open records laws, and quickly providing context and depth with easily accessible databases.
01-03-2006  1:53 pm  |  Industry News

City Pages Writer Releases Book, Sells Screenplay

Diablo Cody -- former stripper, former City Pages associate arts editor and current City Pages "Pussy Ranch" blogger -- likes to keep busy. Her new book, "Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper," hit stores last week; her first screenplay, "Juno," is scheduled to begin filming in May and is getting buzz as a female "Napoleon Dynamite"; she signed a two-script deal with Warner Bros.; and she is writing a TV pilot for UPN. All of her edgy work is set in Minneapolis. Cody (real name: Brook Busey-Hunt) tells Pioneer Press. "Mark my words, it's going to be like Minneapolis in your face. The world is going to get tired of this city," she says.
01-03-2006  1:24 pm  |  Industry News

Alt-Weekly Editor Resigns After Apartment Firenew

Corey Hutchins, editor in chief of the 17-month-old Columbia City Paper in South Carolina, discovered the damage from the fire in his home on Saturday. He then "announced that he will resign, effective immediately," according to a City Paper statement. Hutchins believes the incident is linked to his work on the newspaper, which has drawn criticism for reporting on a sexual discrimination lawsuit against a University of South Carolina department chair and for publishing the governor’s private telephone number in an editorial on the death penalty. "When the police showed up at the house after the fire, they asked me if I had any enemies," Hutchins said in the City Paper statement. "I told them I was the editor of the Columbia City Paper. I didn't exactly have to provide them with a list is what I'm saying."
Editor & Publisher  |  01-03-2006  9:10 am  |  Industry News

Monster Gains Expected for Monster.comnew

Editor & Publisher  |  01-03-2006  1:58 pm  |  Industry News

World Association of Newspapers: Predictions for 2006new

World Association of Newspapers  |  01-03-2006  8:12 am  |  Industry News

'Soft' Job Market to Kick Off 2006new

Inman News (sub. req.)  |  01-03-2006  8:06 am  |  Industry News

Agencies Look Beyond Focus Groups to Spot Trendsnew

New York Times  |  01-03-2006  7:54 am  |  Industry News

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