AAN News
Two Weeklies Duke It Out in Seattle Newspaper Warnew
Circulation of The Stranger has grown, and it's now 10,000 to 12,000 copies a week behind the more established Seattle Weekly, Mike Lewis reports in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Stranger publisher Tim Keck says the Weekly, which is regarded as more serious, is "boring." Weekly editor Knute Berger describes The Stranger, which is considered more humorous and sensationalistic, as "juvenile." Lewis writes that the two weeklies have "slowly, subtly become more like each other in an effort to establish dominance in a midsize media market...."
Seattle Post-Intelligencer |
05-13-2004 11:08 am |
Industry News
Border Art Installation Sends Message about Migrant Deathsnew
A gigantic metal wall dissects Nogales, a city in Arizona and the state of Sonora, Mexico. On the Mexican side, huge figures press up against the wall. One figure depicts a green-skinned Border Patrol agent chasing some migrants with a big stick, another a migrant returning home to Mexico with an American washing machine loaded onto his back. Other representations warn of the dangers in the desert: the saguaros growing out of a cluster of skulls, the fiery desert curling like a rattler underfoot, Mexicans carrying home the body of a dead compañero in a shroud. Margaret Regan reports on this controversial art and the message its creators hope to spread.
Alt-Weeklies Need to Catch Up on Web Advertising, Consultants Say
Alternative newsweeklies have what it takes to attract online advertising. They're highly local. They have a young, tech-savvy readership. But the papers are still in the Dark Ages when it comes to Internet advertising, says ad sales consultant Mike Blinder (pictured), who will speak at the AAN convention in San Antonio in June. He and other experts urge the industry to follow the lead of some of the larger AAN papers and make their Web strategies more cutting-edge.
(FULL STORY)
John Ferri |
05-13-2004 2:56 pm |
Industry News
U.S. Has a Tradition of Institutionalized Brutality, Writer Saysnew
Atrocities like the torture and killings of unarmed civilians in Vietnam and the sexual humiliation of prisoners in Abu Ghraib in Iraq are not the mere result of rogue soldiers but stem from what historian Christian Appy identifies as "a doctrine of atrocity," Nicholas Turse writes in The Village Voice. Turse cites military officers' descriptions of the Asian mind and now the Arab mind as one that only understands force. Four other writers also contribute articles to the Voice's special report on the lessons of Abu Ghraib.
Half of AAN Papers Publish Exclusive Story
In mid-April, editors of AAN papers waited in suspense to see a promised story discussing a memo by a U.S. official detailed to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. Minutes before 10 a.m. Tuesday, April 20, the investigative piece by reporter Jason Vest was posted to the Web sites of two papers, The Village Voice and The Boston Phoenix. Over the following hours and days, AAN papers from New Haven, Conn., to Mill Valley, Calif., also published the story, in print, on the Web, or both. Alerted to the article by blogs, readers rushed to alt-weeklies' Web sites in droves.
(FULL STORY)
Charlie Deitch |
05-12-2004 1:08 pm |
Industry News
Kroger Removes LEO, Other Papers from Grocery Storesnew
Two weeks after it refused to continue carrying a church newspaper, Kroger is removing three other weekly papers from its free distribution racks. Louisville, Kentucky's alternative weekly, LEO, is among the banned. A Kroger spokesman told reporter Peter Smith of The Courier-Journal that the store's biggest issue with some of the publications was "the sexual nature of much of the advertising they contain." John Yarmuth, LEO's founder and executive editor, calls the ban "a horrible business decision."
The Courier-Journal |
05-12-2004 10:32 am |
Industry News
Tags: LEO Weekly
Online Newspaper Readers More Politicalnew
Visitors to online newspaper sites are more likely to be interested in politics than the general online population, according to a Nielsen// NetRatings Political View analysis of survey data conducted for the Newspaper Association of America (NAA).
Media Daily News |
05-11-2004 2:51 pm |
Industry News
On the Streets of San Francisco, Kiosks Replace News Racksnew
Three-hundred new pedestal newspaper kiosks have been installed in downtown San Francisco, replacing free-standing racks, Joe Rogers reports for KCBS-740 AM. Media giant Clear Channel will maintain the new racks, which feature a billboard on the back. Mayor Gavin Newsom says the racks are intended to clean up some of the city's sidewalk clutter.
CBS5.com |
05-11-2004 3:53 pm |
Industry News
Silicon Valley Governments Are Still Cyberslothsnew
The dirty little secret of Silicon Valley governments is that they have been slow to embrace high-tech innovations, many produced by the 7,300 tech companies sitting in their backyards, William Dean Hinton reports for Metro Silicon Valley. In Santa Clara, you still have to view criminal records on microfiche, and there's no reliable search engine on the city of San Jose's Web site. The recognized leaders in E-government aren't on the West Coast but in cities like Nashville, Tenn., and Louisville, Mo.
Tags: Metro Silicon Valley
Willamette Week Exposes Former Governor's Sex with Minornew
Neil Goldschmidt admitted to sexual relations with a 14-year-old girl in the 1970s, when he was mayor of Portland, Ore. Under Oregon law, sex with a girl under 16 is considered third-degree rape. He told The Oregonian of Portland about the transgression after he learned that Willamette Week was preparing a story about it, Editor & Publisher reports. Goldschmidt was governor of Oregon from 1987-1991 and served as U.S. transportation secretary under President Carter. Recently, he stepped down as president of the Oregon Board of Higher Education, citing health problems.
Editor & Publisher |
05-10-2004 2:44 pm |
Industry News
Mags Record 11th Straight Month of Ad Page Cutsnew
Consumer magazines experienced their 11th consecutive month of ad page erosion, a pattern that could make 2004 the third straight year of declining magazine ad volume. According to estimates released last week by the Publishers Information Bureau, the magazine business once again ran in place during April, with ad pages down 0.5 percent against the same period in 2003 even though revenue jumped 6.8 percent. For the first four months of 2004, pages have declined 1.7 percent and revenue has grown 6.5 percent.
Media Daily News |
05-10-2004 8:45 am |
Industry News
Three Teens Tried on Charge of Raping Unconscious Girlnew
At the May 3 start of the Orange County, California, trial
of three teenage boys accused of gang-raping an
unconscious minor, a defense attorney made a
startling assertion: the alleged victim enticed the
"sweet," "caring," "kind" defendants into a sexual
frenzy and then, while faking unconsciousness,
sexually assaulted them. At one point, the
attorney, Joseph G. Cavallo,
blurted out to the jury, "Why isn’t she being
charged with this crime?" R. Scott Moxley reports on the trial for OC Weekly.
Funds for Anti-Smoking Campaign Shrinknew
Each day tobacco accounts for the deaths of roughly 1,200 Americans, making it a bigger killer than alcohol, AIDS, car crashes, illegal drugs, murders and suicides combined. At the same time, the American Legacy Foundation, the group charged with educating the public about the dangers of smoking, is seeing its annual budget shrink by $20-$25 million each year, Seth McM. Donlin reports in Boston's Weekly Dig. That's because independent cigarette brands are gaining market share, diminishing the total the big four tobacco companies must pay to fund an anti-smoking campaign under the 1998 tobacco settlement with 46 states.
Tags: Boston's Weekly Dig
Governor Schwarzenegger Keeps Press at Baynew
It turns out that Arnold Schwarzenegger views being governor of California as just another movie promotion: Give the press five minutes, tell them what the questions will be about, and move on. The press isn't any too happy about it, Jeff Kearns reports in Sacramento News & Review.
Tags: Sacramento News & Review
Eclectic Panel to Headline Creative Loafing's Political Party
05-06-2004 12:33 pm |
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