AAN News
Times Publishing Buys LEOnew
A subsidiary of the Erie, Pa. company,
formed in March to invest in alternative
newspapers and headed by Art
Howe, acquires Louisville's
alt-weekly only months after its purchase
of Cleveland Free Times. Pam
Brooks, a longtime Louisville
resident and publishing executive, is the
new publisher, replacing Blanche
Kitchen Brewer, who is retiring. "It
was time," explains LEO Executive Editor
and co-founder John Yarmuth.
"My concern is the best
interest of this paper, and it supersedes
all personal agendas."
Louisville Eccentric Observer |
07-16-2003 12:16 pm |
Industry News
Day of Reckoning for Ashcroft?new
A recent report by the U.S. Justice Department's Inspector General may energize an effort to bring top U.S. law enforcement officials to justice for the systematic sweep of hundreds of Arab and Muslim immigrants into detention after Sept.11, Chisun Lee reports in The Village Voice. Some of these former detainees are now suing U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and others for a host of civil rights violations. "In numerous cases, people not accused of any crime were locked down 23 hours a day, sometimes in solitary confinement, and shackled at the wrists, waist, and ankles when outside their cells," Lee writes. "Some detainees reported afterward that they had been slammed into walls, kicked, and subjected to petty torments like constant bright light during sleeping hours and deprivation of toilet paper and soap."
The ACC's Bloatnew
In its botched expansion, has the ACC "forsaken all it once stood for, selling out to football and TV?" Independent Weekly's Barry Jacobs looks at what the addition of Miami and Virginia Tech will do to the conference that was founded by football boosters but has always been known for its basketball power. "Here we were ... operating in a hostile takeover manner, with greed as the single manifestation of it, and nobody was telling anybody anything," William Friday, retired president of the University of North Carolina system and a leading advocate of athletic reform, tells Jacobs.
Circulation: An Eternal Preoccupation
As every alternative newspaper publisher knows, it's not easy to move thousands of newspapers every week, especially when distribution points are becoming increasingly difficult to secure. That's why AAN members keep a sharp eye on circulation, watching for erosion, distribution opportunities and threats from the competition. Managers at 11 member papers talked to AAN News about how they keep their numbers steady in a stagnant economy.
(FULL STORY)
Ann Hinch |
07-14-2003 2:33 pm |
Industry News
Tags: Circulation
Prison Poet's Violent Past and Redemptionnew
Shaka N'Zinga is a well-known prison poet and intellectual. He was Arthur Wiggins, a violent and psychotic teenager, when he was arrested and convicted for the brutal rape and murder of an 18-year-old girl. Baltimore City Paper's Blake de Pastino talks to the Afrocentric anarchist whose recent "breathtakingly ambitious book," A Disjointed Search for the Will to Live, is "all at once the story of his desperate, dead-stoned days on the streets of Baltimore, an invective against the 'insane design' of the white man, a tirade about the failings of capitalism, and, ultimately, a meditation on the lingering hopefulness of human nature."
Medill Workshop Set for Mid-September
AAN Staff |
07-14-2003 5:19 pm |
Association News
Washington Post Co. Launching Free Weekday Tabloidnew
In another daily paper attempt to capture young readers, The Washington Post's Express will be given away to commuters and is designed to be read in 15 minutes. "So The Post is going after the hipster demographic -- what a surprise," Washington City Paper Editor Erik Wemple tells the Post. Express will debut in August.
The Washington Post |
07-11-2003 10:04 am |
Industry News
Maui Time Weekly Turns Sixnew
When Tommy Russo finished college at Chico State at the age of 23, he headed straight to Maui with a truck, a laser printer, two computers and the hope of starting a new weekly newspaper. He got the paper started, but after eight weeks he was broke; it took a last minute advertising contract to keep the presses running. Six years later, Russo has turned Maui Time Weekly from a biweekly focusing on surf culture into a full-fledged alternative paper that each week reaches over 10 percent of the tourists and locals on the island, Ian Houston reports.
Maui Time Weekly |
07-11-2003 6:29 pm |
Industry News
Murder in Livermorenew
Katie Belflower was 17 years old, pale and unpopular, with a reputation for going after other girls' boyfriends. But prosecutors say that once she latched onto Mike Simons, a 20-year-old who was already married to another teenager, she didn't want to let go -- no matter who had to die in the process. East Bay Express staff writer Susan Goldsmith reports, in a story based in part on her exclusive access to videotaped police interviews with the suspects, Belflower and an unlikely pair of accomplices almost got away with one of the most chilling murders ever to haunt the endless East Bay suburbs.
Bar Ad Has ISU Brass Hopping Madnew
An ad for a Des Moines-area watering hole pictures Larry Eustachy, the former Iowa State basketball coach, lifting a cold beer alongside the man who called for his resignation. The ad, which appears in the July 9 edition of new AAN-member Pointblank, did not amuse ISU officials even though at the bottom of the advertisement, in small print, is a disclaimer - "ad is purely satirical." A university spokesman called it "a cheap grab for attention." Other ads for the bar, Autographs, feature unlikely drinking buddies, such as Hillary Clinton and Monica Lewinksy.
Des Moines Register |
07-10-2003 5:51 pm |
Industry News
Tags: Retail Advertising
