AAN News
Chicago Reader Gets a Faceliftnew
The Chicago Reader will hit stands on Thursday, Sept. 16, with a colorful front page and new layout, marking its first redesign in 12 years, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. Rather than feature the text of the lead story, the new front page will read vertically and be highlighted by color photos and art above the fold. An advertisement will be below the fold. The paper's inner sections will also get front-page makeovers to prominently feature week-at-a-glance calendars and critics' picks. Editor Alison True tells reporter Eric Herman that the goal of the redesign was to put "a lot more information on the covers."
Chicago Sun-Times |
09-15-2004 4:01 pm |
Industry News
Newspapers Plan E-Commerce Despite Uncertaintiesnew
Some newspapers have begun allowing readers to buy goods directly through online classifieds or bid for merchandise on the papers' Web sites, but their entrance onto the e-commerce stage is off to a rocky start. The industry agrees that papers must have a strong presence online as readers spend more time on the Internet, but debates both readers' interest in local papers as online shopping destinations and whether such transactions can be profitable for newspapers.
Dow Jones via Excite |
09-15-2004 10:37 am |
Industry News
Marketers Plan Slower Ad Expansion in '05new
ignaling a potential falloff in ad spending next year, WPP unit Millward Brown Tuesday released a survey indicating that far fewer senior level marketing executives plan to boost ad spending in the major media in 2005. The study, Millward Brown's so-called "Marketing & Media Snapshot 2004," was sponsored by Advertising.com and shows that online media continues to have the greatest ad budget expansion plans among marketers, with more than half planning to boost spending in the medium in both 2004 and 2005. However, the percentage of marketers planning to boost online ad outlays in 2005 fell more than three percentage points to 54.1 percent in 2005.
Media Daily News |
09-15-2004 10:28 am |
Industry News
AAN Board Members Zankowski and Newman Resign
Ryan Learmouth |
09-15-2004 11:07 am |
Association News
Ad Spending Up, According to NAAnew
Ad spending across all media advanced 3.6 percent in 2003, led by a 15 percent increase in cable television, according to veteran advertising forecaster Robert Coen of Universal McCann in New York City. Overall, gains in national ad spending, up 4.8 percent, outpaced increases in local spending, which edged up 1.8 percent.
Ad spending in newspapers returned to positive territory in 2003, up 1.9 percent, after two difficult years (see table, right). The overall newspaper ad gains last year began to accelerate in the fourth quarter and into the early part of 2004. Increases averaged 1.5 percent through the first nine months in 2003, rose 2.6 percent in the fourth quarter and went up 3.5 percent in first-quarter 2004. Preliminary, incomplete indicators on performance in the second quarter showed a gain of roughly 4 percent. However, those increases were neither uniform across all advertising categories nor uniform across geographic areas.
Presstime |
09-14-2004 10:50 am |
Industry News
Faux Alt Debuts in Tampanew
The Times Publishing Co., publisher of the St. Petersburg Times, has launched tbt*, a weekly paper apparently aimed at asterisk-loving young adults. According to the Times, tbt* delivers news in short chunks with colorful photos and no attempt at serious analysis, and bills itself as "zippy news for time-challenged adults." Features also include entertainment listings, shopping tips, and advice on computers and romance. Paul Tash, editor and chairman of Times Publishing, tells reporter Helen Huntley: "There's nothing else like it on the market." AAN-member Weekly Planet (Tampa) is distributed in the same area.
St. Petersburg Times |
09-13-2004 6:11 pm |
Industry News
Scene Editor Clears Air Over St. John Flapnew
It began innocently enough. Nashville Scene editor Bruce Dobie ran a generally positive review of Warren St. John's new book on football fans. St. John, in town for a book tour, read the review, but it was the caption under his photograph -- "Warren St. John uses race in the worst kind of way: to make himself look honorable" -- that caught his attention. The New York Times writer called Dobie to complain. He called again (and again and again). Finally, he wrote a piece for Slate in which he trashed Dobie, the paper and the reviewer. Dobie responds with an open letter to St. John: "You really are capable of offering only part of the truth, the part that burnishes your own image of yourself."
Nashville Scene |
09-13-2004 1:40 pm |
Industry News
AAN Creates Design & Production Committee
AAN Staff |
09-13-2004 3:51 pm |
Association News
New York Times Catches Up to Flyer After Seven Monthsnew
In the Sept. 8 issue of The New York Times, columnist Nicholas D. Kristof casts doubt upon President Bush's fulfillment of his Air National Guard duties in 1972. He produces a "compelling witness" named Bob Mintz, who served at the same Alabama base where Bush claims to have been. Mintz remembers actively searching for Bush to no avail. Kristof asks Mintz, "Why speak out now?" The honest answer is that Mintz first spoke out on the matter to The Memphis Flyer, an AAN-member paper, many months ago. Jackson Baker quoted Mintz in a groundbreaking story posted to The Flyer's Web site on Feb. 12 and updated four days later. Kenneth Neill, publisher of The Flyer, has written a letter to the editor of The New York Times to point that out.
New York Times |
09-08-2004 4:40 pm |
Industry News
Tags: Editorial, The Memphis Flyer
Potter to Succeed Newman as City Paper Editornew
Chris Potter has been named Andy Newman's replacement as editor of Pittsburgh City Paper, reports Pittsburgh Business Times. "It was a huge surprise to me," says Potter, who has been the paper's managing editor since he and Newman came over from the now-defunct In Pittsburgh Newsweekly seven years ago. Potter will take over the position in November, after the City Paper's annual Best of Pittsburgh issue. "[Potter and I] have been conjoined for almost 10 years," Newman tells reporter Tim Schooley. "It's a very delicate procedure, but I think we'll both go on to lead productive lives."
Pittsburgh Business Times |
09-07-2004 1:03 pm |
Industry News
Observer Article is Protected Speech, Court Rulesnew
The Texas Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the Dallas Observer in a lawsuit brought by two Denton County public officials, reports the Houston Chronicle. Judge Darlene Whitten and District Attorney Bruce Isaacks sued the paper for libel over a satire published in 1999. The piece, titled "Stop the Madness," was a parody of the actual arrest of a 13-year-old girl for reading a graphic Halloween story to her class. The Supreme Court backed its 8-0 ruling by saying that a reasonable reader of the entire article about a fictional 6-year-old girl's arrest would realize it was not true and was intended as satire.
Houston Chronicle |
09-07-2004 10:56 am |
Industry News
2004 Academy Fellows Gain an Alternative Outlook
Ryan Learmouth |
09-07-2004 6:03 pm |
Association News
Tags: Editorial
Overtime for Journalists? It Depends.
Alice Neff Lucan |
09-07-2004 1:34 pm |
Legal News
Tags: Financial, Management
Pulp Syndicate Offers Post-9/11 Report at Half-Price to AAN Members
09-03-2004 12:05 pm |
Press Releases
Tags: Pulp Syndicate
