Local TV station KCRA reports that the News & Review is "getting through the recession better than others" like Sacramento's daily, the Bee, which, like so many other daily newspapers, has laid off scores of staffers in the past few years. "We took a dip last year but it's really picking up, and as things for the dailies get worse it's going to get even better for us," News & Review president and CEO Jeff von Kaenel tells the station.

Continue ReadingSacramento News & Review is Holding Strong Despite the Downturn

in 1996, Jeff vonKaenel wrote a widely discussed piece predicting that most daily newspapers would be out of business in ten years. Although his timing was off, there's no question he nailed the trajectory. Now he's back to ask, What comes next? His "guess" and "hope" is that weekly newspapers will survive as "a viable economic model," and journalism that is "more cutting-edge, more controversial ... (and) less locally based" will flourish online through the joint support of nonprofits, corporations and individual citizens.

Continue ReadingNews & Review Publisher: What Will Remain After the Dailies Go Away?

California's capital city is weighing an ordinance to replace news boxes on the K Street mall area and replace them with city-owned and operated modular racks, the News & Review reports. The city's proposed rule would allow dailies first pick of space in the modular racks, followed by weeklies, then semi weeklies and monthlies.

Continue ReadingSacramento Looks to Modular News Racks in Downtown Area

"In the early years, SN&R was panned, dissed, scoffed at and boycotted. We were also loved and welcomed," founding editor Melinda Welsh writes. "Somehow -- story by story, column by column, brainstorm by brainstorm -- the paper managed to take root and gain ground." The alt-weekly celebrates the anniversary this week with a special issue featuring pieces from a wide variety of folks involved with the paper over the years.

Continue ReadingSacramento News & Review Celebrates 20th Anniversary

In a joint special project with Capital Public Radio, the Sacramento News & Review is seeking short "Letters to Obama" through the end of the year. "The idea is to share our hopes and dreams for the new president with each other as well as with the new occupant of the White House," the paper writes. Some letters will be published in a special inaugural issue and read on the radio.

Continue ReadingNews & Review and Public Radio Station Team Up for ‘Letters to Obama’

Marc Keyser is a familiar name to the staff of the Sacramento News & Review. Keyser, who is suspected of mailing out 120 hoax anthrax letters nationwide last week, first sent a hoax anthrax package to the N&R in January 2007. He was questioned and warned by FBI agents, but not arrested, after he mailed a cylinder marked "anthrax" to the alt-weekly because he wanted publicity for a novel he had written.

Continue ReadingAnthrax Prankster Who Hit News & Review in ’07 Seems to be Back

The California Newspaper Publishers Association announced the winners of its annual Better Newspapers Contest on Saturday, and nine AAN members won a total of 38 awards. The Sacramento News & Review won a total of nine awards, five of which were first-place finishes, including a General Excellence win. "The News & Review is a salty and irreverent weekly packed with excellent coverage of news and culture, multiple voices in columns and two pages of letters," the judges wrote. "Its colorful design is inviting and, praises to the sales department, it is packed with ads." In addition, Palo Alto Weekly also won nine total awards; the North Coast Journal won eight; Chico News & Review won four; the San Francisco Bay Guardian won three; Metro Silicon Valley won two; and the Pacific Sun, Pasadena Weekly and SF Weekly each took home one award. CORRECTION: The Santa Barbara Independent also won five awards.

Continue ReadingCalifornia Alt-Weeklies Take Home Dozens of State Awards

Sacramento Magazine's annual "assessment of those wielding power and influence in the region" includes one unlikely pick that caught our eye: an alt-weekly reporter. The mag picked Sacramento News & Review's Sena Christian -- known as the "Eco Warrior Princess" -- because she "goads and guilts us into environmental stewardship with lively prose about all things 'green,' from fashion to toilets." Christian covers the sustainability beat full-time for the N&R, and she's chronicling the paper's $1.4 million "green" renovation of an old grocery store, which will serve as the paper's offices when complete later this year.

Continue ReadingNews & Review Reporter Lands on ‘Power & Influence 100’ List