AAN News
Russ Smith Returns to Baltimorenew
The alt-weekly contrarian launches a new weekly column this week in City Paper under the header "Right Field." Smith will also continue writing his "Mugger" column for New York Press, which he sold late last year. But he and his family left Manhattan to return to Charm City, where he co-founded the City Paper (it was originally called City Squeeze) in 1977 and sold it a decade later.
Baltimore City Paper |
07-02-2003 4:55 pm |
Industry News
Tags: Baltimore City Paper, Russ Smith
To the Slaughterhousenew
How did Texas slaughterhouses operate illegally
for the past quarter-century without getting
caught? Maybe no one in the state government
knew that the agricultural code forbids horse
slaughter. Or perhaps the industry's profits —
which benefited not only the plants and buyers,
but also several state agencies and Texas
universities — were enough that it paid to look the
other way. Editor Lisa Sorg looks at horse slaughter practices in Texas in a two-part series.
Directory to Draw Circulation Data From Auditors
AAN Staff |
07-02-2003 9:57 am |
Association News
Southland Won't Compete Head-to-Head With LA Weekly
In an area as large as Los Angeles, there are plenty of opportunities to serve niches, says Group Publisher David Comden, who recently launched two new weeklies in the market. Southland has assembled an all-star cast of alternative journalism veterans at LA CityBEAT and ValleyBEAT, and with the company's paper in Pasadena, now circulates 140,000 papers each week in the L.A. basin. Comden says he'll offer low-price options to advertisers and an "alternative to the alternative" for LA's younger readers.
(FULL STORY)
John Ferri |
07-01-2003 9:23 am |
Industry News
Waging a Holy War Against Pedophile Priestsnew
Seven years ago, conservative
Roman
Catholic activist Steven Brady began
a
crusade to root out priests involved in
sexual scandal. Operating from his
pizza
parlor in rural Petersburg, Ill.,
Brady’s
group, Roman Catholic Faithful,
conducted Internet and direct-mail
campaigns to oust priests in dioceses
from Dallas to South Africa. Critics say
Brady goes on the attack with scant
evidence, but he’s caught some priests
through their own personal ads. "He has
no natural ability to identify or interpret
facts," admits one supporter. "However,
he is such an idiot that I'm sure God is
leading him." In a two-part series, Illinois Times’ Pete
Sherman talks to Brady about RCF’s
self-professed mission to fight
"corruption within the Catholic hierarchy."
Brady is blunt: "We are in the business of
destroying lives, but lives that
need
destroying."
Admissions Committee Reply to Santa Maria Sun
Kenneth Neill |
07-01-2003 6:03 pm |
Letters to the Editor
Newsweekly War in Detroitnew
The Detroit Free Press looks at the brawl between AAN-member Metro Times and upstart Real Detroit Weekly. In this corner, Metro Times -- 20 years old and sophisticated, laden with narrative journalism, investigative stories, in-depth arts and music criticism, a paper for "people who read without moving their lips," Editor Jeremy Voas tells the daily. In the other, the challenger Real Detroit -- "all style and flash and talking trash," and unabashedly giving advertisers favorable coverage. Readers -- and advertisers -- will determine the winner, but Real Detroit has carved out a niche that's giving it about half the readership of the dominant Times, freelancer Christopher Walton reports.
Detroit Free Press |
06-30-2003 10:41 am |
Industry News
Tags: Metro Times
Chicago Reader Inc. Considers Investment in European Alt-Weeklynew
The publisher of alternative weeklies in Chicago and Washington is talking with Todd A. Savage, a former Reader contributor who lives in Amsterdam, about starting an alt-weekly in the Netherlands, Crain's Chicago Business reports. Savage would be editor and publisher. "We hope it happens," Publisher Jane Levine tells Crain's. The Reader views it more as an investment in Savage's publication than the Reader starting its own European publication, Levine tells AAN News. Chicago Reader Inc. also has a stake in Seattle's Index Newspapers, which publishes The Stranger and the Portland Mercury.
Crain's Chicago Business |
06-30-2003 10:15 am |
Industry News
Christian Anti-Porn Message to the Rescuenew
Two California pastors who run
XXXchurch, "the No. 1 Christian anti-porn
site on the Web," have enlisted a
midget in their crusade against self
abuse. In a TV commercial playing on
cable television, they show "Eddie the
Midget" struggling in everyday life with his
small stature before a
narrator intones, "If only someone had
warned Eddie that porn would STUNT
HIS GROWTH!" Their next commercial
shows kittens frolicking about before the
narrator says, "Did you know that every
time someone masturbates, God kills a
kitten?"
The Wilderness Debate: A Road Runs Through Itnew
Under a 137-year-old mining law, land freed from the protections of official designation as a wilderness study area is land that anyone can run a road through. And once that road is worn and claimed, future wilderness designation is next to impossible. But subsequent clarifications of the law have failed to douse the controversy over what can be defined as a road. For the wilderness contingent, a road is a "highway" that accommodates all four wheels of a jeep, truck or car. For developers and their friends in government, a road is merely that which allows the passage of vehicles, including dusty old hiking trails. Ben Fulton describes the Utah politics playing out over these issues and their impact on the Bush Interior Department's plans to open wild, remote areas to access and development.
Libertarian Group Seeks to Intervene in VVM/NT Antitrust Casenew
Skip Oliva, president of the nonprofit organization Citizens for Voluntary Trade, filed a motion Tuesday with a federal court in Ohio to intervene in the Justice Department's antitrust case against Village Voice Media and NT Media. If granted intervention, Oliva says he will appeal the decision approving a government-mandated settlement in the closure of papers in Cleveland and Los Angeles. Oliva's 15-page brief to the U.S. District Court in Cleveland details numerous allegations of misconduct and unconstitutional abuse of prosecutorial power by Justice.
Citizens for Voluntary Trade |
06-26-2003 2:45 pm |
Industry News
