San Francisco Bay Guardian executive editor Tim Redmond reports that Josh Fromson "provided almost nothing" in his turn as a witness yesterday in the Bay Guardian-SF Weekly predatory-pricing case. Redmond suggests that Fromson feigned ignorance in response to questions posed by the Bay Guardian's attorney during a hearing designed to help the paper collect on its judgment against SF Weekly and its parent company, Village Voice Media. Earlier this year, a San Francisco Superior Court jury ruled in favor of the Bay Guardian, and the judge in the case set damages at $15.9 million. VVM announced last month that it plans to appeal the ruling.

"Through the miracle of email forwarding technology," Matt Bors writes, his latest comic eventually found itself in the hands of the military lawyer for Osama Bin Laden's former driver Salim Hamdan. Hamdan, who was convicted yesterday of providing material support for terrorism and acquitted of a conspiracy charge, apparently was "quite amused" when the cartoon was translated for him. "At first I was excited ... Then reality set in," Bors writes. "This puts 2 degrees of separation between me and Bin Laden ... With the flimsy standards of evidence preferred by the Bush administration, does this mean I could be tried in a military tribunal for giving aid and comforting humor to the enemy?" More from Willamette Week.

AAN News has learned that Tom Gogola is no longer the editor of the Tribune Company's AAN-member paper in suburban Connecticut. No replacement has been named. Associate editor Nick Keppler has temporarily assumed the editorial reins, according to Josh Mamis, group publisher for the Weekly and the three other New Mass. Media papers.

The Portland Phoenix has created a local alternative to the Beijing Olympic Games, the 2008 Portland Phoelympics, which will be "free of smog, lead toys, forced child-labor, political oppression, and large, ancient walls," according to a press release. "The Phoenix is proud to have created an international event worthy of the great city of Portland," said Marc Shepard, associate publisher of the Phoenix and president of the IPC (International Phoelympic Committee). "We expect the economic impact of these games on the city to be substantial, as we've already spent close to $47 on equipment, and that does NOT include our bar tab and first aid supplies."

Veronis Suhler Stevenson's (VSS) annual Communications Industry Forecast notes that newspapers, long the dominant U.S. advertising platform, have fallen behind broadcast TV this year, which itself is poised to be usurped by the internet within the next three years, Media Daily News reports. The VSS report also shows that traditional media are increasingly claiming online ad space. VSS estimates that traditional media operators will account for nearly half (49.5%) of online ad dollars this year. That share is up from less than a third (29.1%) in 2002, and is projected to take a dominant position by 2011.

Electile Dysfunction, a documentary about political campaigns that City Paper's Mary Patel made with Joe Barber, has been bought by an independent film studio, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Cinema Libre plans to distribute the doc, which uses the 2006 U.S. Senate campaign in Pennsylvania as "a case study to explore how campaigns work," through Netflix, Blockbuster and Amazon. Patel tells the Inky that Electile Dysfunction will be out next month.

"The reasons for my departure are complicated, but at the heart of the matter is a fundamental disagreement with the management of our parent company over editorial philosophy," Robotham wrote in an editor's note last week. "The higher ups here believed that Port Folio under my leadership had become too staunchly liberal." Robotham, who had been at Port Folio for ten years, has been replaced by a co-editing team of former arts editor Leona Baker and contributor Jeff Maisey, according to the Virginian-Pilot. The daily also notes that the aforementioned "higher ups" have penned a response to Robotham to run in this week's paper. "It has to do with a need for significant change," the column by publisher Colleen Nabhan and general manager Edward Power reportedly says. The paper "has experienced a graying of its audience" and must "embrace new audiences in more inventive and effective ways," they argue.

Jacob Shafer has replaced Anthony Pignataro as the paper's editor, according to a press release. Shafer comes to Maui from Northern California, where he served as calendar editor and later staff writer for The Pacific Sun. "Jacob has a firm grasp of important environmental issues that are so critical to our delicate and precious market, an isolated island in the middle of the Pacific. He contributes a maturity level way beyond his years to this gift that we offer our community," says Maui Time publisher Tommy Russo.

The Chattanooga, Tenn., alt-weekly has been purchased by Brewer Media Group, which owns a handful of local radio stations and websites. "Brewer Media Group is a fantastic match for The Pulse," publisher Zack Cooper says. "We are confident that together we will continue to serve up the kind of content our readers expect. At the same time, Brewer's multi-media approach offers a powerful and compelling proposition for advertisers." Cooper, who was co-owner of the paper with editor Michael Kull, will remain publisher under Brewer.

"Layered in laughable, lopsided, linguistic humor, Hollis Gillespie's Trailer Trashed: My Dubious Efforts Toward Upward Mobility is a wonderful land of well-crafted humor within a world of spellbinding wit," writes J. Edward Sumerau in Metro Spirit. The marks the third book for Gillespie, who writes the "Moodswing" column for Creative Loafing. "I never know how to explain my books except to say, 'It's like Shakespeare,' and hope people get the joke," Gillespie tells the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "This book literally covers my dubious efforts at upward mobility, starting with life with my Dad, the drunk trailer salesman, and ending with selling the TV series (which is based on my first two books) in Hollywood." That TV series is back on track after a brief detour due to the writers' strike, Gillespie tells the Journal, with Laura Dern in tow. "[She's] been a champion of the project since the day after my first book was released," Gillespie says.

"Advertising and consumer-generated revenues are on a steep dive that could take a devastating toll on media company spending and development well into 2009," opines MediaPost editor-in-chief Diane Mermigas. She notes that even what had previously been considered the bright spot for media companies is looking troubled: "The meteoric growth of online ad revenues, and display advertising in particular, trends downward."

Some Republican senators are refusing to begin debate on the latest version of a federal shield law until the Senate addresses a bill that would promote more domestic oil and gas production, the Washington Post reports. The most recent iteration of the bill was introduced on Tuesday by Sens. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.). A similar bill was passed last October by the House of Representatives and the Senate Judiciary Committee.

In a story based on the premise of New York Yankees starting pitcher Mike Mussina's failed attempts to get published by McSweeney's, the Onion "reports" that Mussina "frequently submitted" stories to Baltimore City Paper while he was in the minor leagues.