AAN News
AAN Sales Hero Cut Down in Prime of Life
Susan Crichton, former ad director for
Gambit Weekly and a beloved member of
this trade
association, died of cancer early Thursday morning
at the age of 44. "She left our world as she lived in it,
calm and graceful," says her husband, Russ
Martineau, who is left to care for the couple's
16-month-old son,
Cooper. Crichton
was a key figure behind the success of both Gambit
and the Alternative Newsweekly Network,
which she
helped to found.
(FULL STORY)
AAN Staff |
08-15-2003 2:46 pm |
Industry News
Howling Madnew
The first Mexican Gray wolves put paws
back on Southwestern soil in 1998 under a program
headed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Today,
around 40 of them roam throughout a roughly
5,000-square-mile area of eastern Arizona and
western New Mexico, and that number is expected to
reach 100 in seven years. Public support
for the program has always been high, especially for
those viewing it from a distance. But for many who
actually live with the wolves, their view of the
animals ranges from public nuisances on up to
four-legged terrorists. Leo W. Banks examines
problems in the wolf reintroduction program.
Voice Redesign Has Edit Staff Grumblingnew
"It's a newsroom in a lot of upheaval and
unhappiness," Senior Editor Brian Parks
tells Sridhar Pappu, who reports that the "rejiggering
has only worsened an already troubled relationship
between the staff and management." The complaints
come from writers who have less space to write
in and who felt left out of the redesign process.
Voice Editor Don Forst says
morale at the paper is fine and calls the
implementation of the redesign "perfect." Pappu also
reports that the Voice "had a pretax profit
margin of
27.2 percent, according to an internal
management
source." (Second item.)
The New York Observer |
08-14-2003 10:40 pm |
Industry News
Tags: Design & Production, Editorial
Boston Phoenix Hires Two New Political Writers
David Bernstein and Adam Reilly
have both been hired to replace Seth Gitell,
who left in May to become Mayor Tom Menino's
press secretary, reports Boston Magazine's James
Burnett. The double-hire also helps to address a
vacancy created when Dorie Clark left the
paper to serve as a spokesperson on Howard Dean's
campaign. The Phoenix has been "a longtime
incubator for well-known national political scribes,"
says Burnett, who lists Joe Klein, Sid
Blumenthal, Michael Crowley and Ted Widmer
among the paper's distinguished alumnus.
Boston Magazine |
08-14-2003 1:04 pm |
Industry News
Home Grownnew
Nine years ago a high-school dropout and daily
pot smoker attended his first Hempfest. That
teenager, Dominic Holden, got involved
and helped turn a backwater hippie smoke-out into
the largest marijuana-law reform rally in the world;
last year's crowd swelled to 175,000. Holden doesn't
smoke pot anymore, but putting down the bong
didn't quell his interest in drug-law reform
in the slightest. Hannah Levin talks to the
26-year-old activist as he and his fellow organizers
prepare for this weekend's Hempfest.
The Iron Womannew
Shelby Sheffield is a corporate attorney,
but her real passion is the triathlon, a
grueling athletic endurance event that consists of
three basic elements -- a swim, a bike ride and a
run. In 2002, the 29-year-old Sheffield went from
being a much respected triathlete on a regional level
to a world-class competitor who qualified to
compete this October in the Hawaii Ironman
Triathlon, the most prestigious triathlon in the
world. Bruce Dobie talks to Sheffield as she
prepares for Hawaii, where competitors will test the
limits of human endurance with a 2.4-mile swim, a
112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run in
temperatures that can reach 110 degrees.
New Weekly Goes After Gannett on its Own Turf
Steve May and his wife Cherry Fisher
May are picking a fight where other publishers
might fear to tread, readying themselves for head-
to-head competition with Gannett.
Beginning this Friday, they will begin publishing an
alternative newsweekly in Lafayette, La., where
Gannett owns both the daily newspaper, The
Daily Advertiser, and its 23-year-old weekly,
The Times of Acadiana. The Mays used to
own The Times, and their anger over what it has
become is fueling their launch of a paper they have
pointedly named The Independent.
"Gannett has destroyed The Times," Steve May says.
"These guys are Sears managers who have a one-
size-fits-all approach to local publishing."
(FULL STORY)
Angie Drobnic Holan |
08-12-2003 11:29 pm |
Industry News
The Jazz Soul of Washingtonnew
In the winter of 1956, Bill Potts and his trio
made musical history in a D.C. nightclub when they
played for six nights with jazz legend Lester
Young. "We knew on the first tune," Potts says.
"It was heaven." When the tapes were released more
than two decades later, they helped rehabilitate the
reputation of Young's later years. Eddie Dean
writes about that magical week and the years
leading up to Potts 1959 classic, "The Jazz Soul
of Porgy and Bess."
Free Trips to Paris Generate AAN Excitement
AAN Staff |
08-12-2003 2:15 pm |
Industry News
Tags: Classified Advertising
The Morality Policenew
The Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation, a
special police unit established in Central Florida
to concentrate on vice and drugs, is supposed to
keep Orange County clean and family friendly.
And they don't care how dirty they have to
get to
do it. Its agents and prosecutors have harassed and
intimidated witnesses, lied about investigations,
trumped up charges against old ladies and spent
hundreds of thousands of tax dollars to coax a
handful of people into committing petty crimes.
"It's true the MBI has been successful, but only by
degrees," writes Orlando Weekly's William Dean
Hinton. "It
is, after all, up against a powerful, unbeatable foe:
the human sex drive."
Pittsburgh Post-Mortem Released
AAN Staff |
08-11-2003 5:18 pm |
Association News
Devastating Storm Rocks The Memphis Flyer
After publishing more than 750 consecutive
issues, the Flyer was forced to skip an edition
when a July 22 storm shut the city down. The blend
of heavy rains and powerful winds forced
three employees from their homes, including
Publisher Ken Neill, who had an 100 foot
oak tree fall on his house, rendering it uninhabitable
until Christmas. The national press, focused on Uday
and Qusay, barely noticed the storm. "We have a
joke," Neill says. "If a tree falls in Memphis, does
it make a sound?"
(FULL STORY)
Matt Pulle |
08-08-2003 5:02 pm |
Industry News
Tags: The Memphis Flyer
Aging Out of Foster Carenew
By the time she turned 18 in July, Sinika had
survived abandonment, sexual molestation, and a
long stint on the streets. She had been in
Baltimore's foster care system since she was 12
years old. Baltimore City Paper's Afefe
Tyehimba looks at what's next for the young
woman undergoing the transition from unforgiving
control of the foster system to the chaos of making
her own way. "Like her tumultuous past, Sinika's
future has no blueprint, but her basic life goals are
the same as everyone else's: to live a peaceful,
stable, prosperous life filled with people to love
who love you back," she writes.
Boston's Weekly Dig Makes Major Editorial Changes
Removes Founding Editor; Welcomes Boston Globe
Arts Columnist as New Arts Editor
(FULL STORY)
08-08-2003 10:17 pm |
Press Releases
