AAN News
Drinkin' Dirtnew
Nowhere in America does a hometown brewery -- in this case, America's largest -- have such a statistical vise grip on local beer consumption as Anheuser-Busch has in St. Louis. Whereas Miller Brewing is lucky to carve out a 50 percent market share in its hometown of Milwaukee, A-B manages 70 percent of the St. Louis area market without having to resort to shameless gimmickry or price-slashing. That said, thanks to a combination of factors -- chief among them an attitudinal migration toward working-class chic among twentysomething hipsters that's steadily infiltrating watering holes nationwide -- subpremium "anti-brands" such as Pabst Blue Ribbon and Miller High Life are enjoying an underground comeback of sorts. Riverfront Times' Mike Seely takes a two-fisted look at the new drinking ethos.
Turning Point for the Sons of Confederate Veteransnew
A battle is raging within the ranks of the Sons of
Confederate Veterans. Should the group stick to
maintaining gravestones and the like -- or devote itself to
fighting for the right to display Confederate symbols
everywhere from schools to statehouses?
"I think who wins will be a straw in the wind about how
the white South is interpreting its past and setting its
agenda for the future," offers UNC Professor Harry
Watson, the director of the Chapel Hill-based Center
for the Study of the American South.
Prescription Drug Implicated in Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy Casesnew
Hundreds of women around the world have been accused of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, a disorder in which parents harm their children in order to gain attention from hospitals and medical personnel. After looking at cases from the United Kingdom to New York, Tennessee and Washington states, investigative reporters writing for The Local Planet Weekly in Spokane, Wash., suggest that a common prescription drug prescribed to stop babies from spitting up may be to blame for the strange symptoms that mothers are often accused of creating. The story is the result of more than a year of research by Nonny de la Pena, whose documentary on the subject, "Mama/M.A.M.A.," will premiere in Florida and Texas in March.
Antitrust Investigation Stunned Editornew
The morning after he learned that New Times Los Angeles was closing, Rick Barrs, now editor of Phoenix New Times, awakened from an "alcoholic haze" to the suggestion from The New York Times' David Carr that the closing might violate federal antitrust laws. Barrs thought the question bizarre. "It seemed unlikely that a Department
of Justice that had allowed daily newspapers to eliminate smaller competitors for generations (take
the Arizona Republic swallowing up the Phoenix Gazette, and the massive Gannett company
buying up the whole shebang) would bother with two alternative media gnats. Especially John
Ashcroft's pro-business Justice Department," Barrs writes.
Phoenix New Times |
02-06-2003 10:19 am |
Industry News
Warmongering and Realitynew
A blue curtain now covers the reproduction of Picasso's monumental anti-war painting, Guernica, that hangs in the United Nations, the Village Voice's Alisa Solomon reports. "How
disconcerting, how off-message, it would be
after all, if Secretary of State Colin Powell or
UN ambassador John Negroponte had to
beat the war drums in front of Picasso's
wrenching images of women and children
writhing in cubistic dismemberment under a
bombing campaign," she writes.
City Pages Wins Another Round in Courtnew
A state appeals court has sided with City
Pages (Twin Cities) in its attempt to force
the state and Blue Cross/Blue Shield of
Minnesota to reveal how much they
paid a high-powered law firm for its
work on the state's lawsuit against the
tobacco industry. "We saw the lawsuit as
a golden opportunity
to
remind our elected officials and their
powerful friends that to be healthy, a
democracy
must be
watched over by a free, independent, and
vigorous press," the paper says in an
unsigned editorial.
City Pages (Twin Cities) |
02-05-2003 5:29 pm |
Industry News
Stars and Stripes To Debut "Alternative" Weekly (Word document)new
The first issue of Pulse, "a new weekly magazine supplement targeting younger, active, single servicemembers," is scheduled to launch March 5. Stars and Stripes, the Pentagon-authorized bastion of daily military news, says Pulse won't "be talking down" to its audience, unlike other dailies' youth pubs. "The staff working on this is under 30. The editor is under 30. We're going to try to tap our totally unique market to make this a magazine they want to read," Editor Danielle L. Kiracofe says.
Stars and Stripes news release |
02-05-2003 11:24 am |
Industry News
Tags: Management
Stem-Cell Research: Debating Damnationnew
Depending on whom you ask, stem-cell
research is either a medical godsend
or further
proof
that God is dead. This seminal
research pits scientists against
anti-choice zealots, old-school
Republicans against new-school
moralists,
states against the Bush administration
--
even reason against hysteria.
As one
observer tells LA Weekly's Steven
Kotler, the "stem-cell debate is
about everything but what it's about."
Alternative Newsweekly Awards Draw Record 1,063 Entries
AAN Staff |
02-05-2003 11:04 am |
Association News
