"Thanks primarily to a rather sensationalistic story on WREG Channel 3 Wednesday night, John Branston's City Beat column from this week's Flyer seems to be generating some controversy," writes editor Bruce VanWyngarden. In the column, Branston asks who should be "the HNIC" of Memphis City Schools, a term meaning "head [N-word] in charge" that refers to the film Lean on Me. VanWyngarden writes that, as editor, he takes responsibility for the column and the phrase. "I apologize to those who were offended by the use of the term in John's column. It was not intended as a racial slur but as a cultural reference to a very real and important decision facing our school board," he writes. "Lost in the controversy is the fact that in his column Branston asks some very pointed and relevant questions of potential superintendent candidates -- questions we ought to be asking." Nevertheless, the one source the TV station has that is upset about the whole thing is still calling for Branston to be fired.

"Following the lead in other cities, the [city's] administration has been working in voluntary cooperation with the News Sentinel [Metro Pulse's parent company] and other publications" to create Knoxville's first unified distribution center, replacing a string of existing news boxes, according to Metro Pulse. If the program goes well, the city is looking to expand it downtown. "Right now Knoxville has no ordinances or restrictions on placement of publication distribution boxes," Metro Pulse reports, but if the voluntary program doesn't work, the city has already examined legislation in other cities to emulate, if necessary.

The Weekly's winnings in the annual awards "designed to reward journalistic excellence" in the 13 states West of the Rocky Mountains included two first-place awards: Nikki Finke's "Deadline Hollywood" column in Special Topic Column Writing, and Tim Foley's "The Case of the Dogged Detective" in Illustration. "Nikki Finke is a badass. Period," say the judges comments. "Good stuff, written with passion and an utter disregard whether any of the studio heads, or anyone in 'the industry,' will ever buy her lunch." The judges say Foley's "stylistic comic book illustration, creative use of color and the comic book-like typography all worked so perfectly well together in this illustration ... Foley did a fantastic job of bringing it all together."

Independent.com has won the EPpy for the best weekly newspaper-affiliated website in the country, Editor & Publisher, which sponsors the contest with Mediaweek, reports. The winners of the annual awards honoring online work were announced yesterday in Las Vegas, and publisher Randy Campbell was there to accept, thanking his staff "for their hard work in taking the website from a skeleton to a fully operational daily source of news for the Santa Barbara community," the Independent reports. "There are no secrets to publishing, either online or in print, so I'm thrilled the hard work and commitment of our web team has been recognized on a national level," said Campbell back in April when the site was first nominated.

Ten fellows have been chosen from a field of about 330 hopefuls to attend the Academy for Alternative Journalism summer residency program at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, to be held June 22 to August 15. The academy trains young journalists in long-form feature writing with the aim of recruiting them into the alternative press. "This class has a lot of career-changers, including a flight attendant, a former truck driver and an elementary school teacher," says program director and Northwestern journalism professor Charles Whitaker. "It's one of the most diverse classes we've had in several years."

Dan Williamson will take over as Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman's spokesman on June 2, according to Columbus Business First. Williamson, who the mayor called "one of the sharpest political observers and writers in Ohio," will oversee a two-member staff and coordinate communications for 13 departments in his new role.

Both Gambit Weekly and The Independent Weekly went home last month with awards from The Louisiana Press Association. The Independent won a total of 38 awards in the editorial and ad/design competitions. These included first-place finishes on the editorial side in Community Service/Service to Readers Website; Continuing Coverage of a Governmental Issue; Continuing Coverage of a Single News Event; Editorial Cartoon; Feature Story; Lifestyle Coverage; and News Coverage. On the ad/design side, the Independent won first in Ad Campaign; Black and White 1/2 Page or Under (Staff-generated); Black and White Over 1/2 Page (Staff-generated); In-Paper Promotion (Color); and Multiple Advertiser Page. Gambit Weekly took home a total of seven awards in the editorial competition, including a first-place finish in Regular Column.

The finalists this year, selected from more than 1,400 entries and over 90 participating papers, run the gamut from investigations of errant public officials to stories about green living. L.A. Weekly leads the pack with eight winners. Washington City Paper and Santa Fe Reporter follow closely with six nominees each. The order of finish for the 13th annual AltWeekly Awards contest will be announced on June 7 in Philadelphia.

Todd Spivak is a finalist in the small newspapers category for his examination of shady rare-coin companies that were targeting elderly investors. The Loebs, which will be awarded on June 30 in New York, are "the highest honors in business journalism."

"A City Hall proposal to group news boxes together in new kiosks ran into a barrage of criticism from media representatives and elected officials Monday night at the Board of Aldermen's Legislation Committee, which tabled the proposal," the New Haven Independent reports. New Haven Advocate publisher Josh Mamis spoke at the meeting, telling the committee that the proposal's prioritization of daily papers over weeklies is a restriction of freedom of speech, according to the Independent. He also complained about the way the city handled the issue, claiming that he wasn't even aware of news rack problems in New Haven. "I've never fielded a complaint," he told the committee. "If there are problems I'd love to hear about them." The ordinance will reportedly be revisited after more input from local media is obtained.

Lynda Barry, who has been authoring "Ernie Pook's Comeek" for 30 years, explains her method of making drawings and stories in What It Is, which was released yesterday by Drawn and Quarterly. She talks to the New York Times about her work and her long career as a cartoonist. "It was a happy accident that Ms. Barry graduated [from college] just as alternative weeklies were springing up around the country and searching, as she put it, 'for oddball comics,'" the Times reports. "She soon became one of a small elite, her strip appearing with [Matt] Groening's 'Life in Hell' alongside the work of Jules Feiffer." Barry will be making some appearances on the East Coast in June and at Comic-Con in July, according to Drawn and Quarterly.

We're not sure how big they are, but after 15 years at the Santa Barbara Independent, Tom Morey has left two pairs of shoes to fill. According to a release from the paper, Jen Malkin and Robby Robbins will replace Morey by "dividing the awesome task of sales management." Robbins, who serves on the AAN Board as Classified Advertising Chair, "will concentrate on bringing sales in the door" while Malkin "lords over" production and marketing. And Morey isn't going anywhere: He will remain with the paper as part of the sales management team focusing on the local arts community.

The state's two AAN members were well-represented when the Arizona Press Club presented its annual awards on Saturday night. Phoenix New Times took home a total of 17 awards, including first-place wins in Arts Writing or Criticism; Children, Families and Seniors Issues Reporting; Environment and Science Reporting; Investigative Reporting; News Column Writing; and Politics and Government Reporting. Staff writer Sarah Fenske tied for first-runner up in the prestigious Virg Hill Journalist of the Year award. Tucson Weekly won a total of 16 awards, including first-place finishes in Business Reporting; Commentary/Analysis; Film, Video and Television Criticism; Personality Profile; Personality Profile Reporting; Public Safety Reporting; Sports Reporting; and Sustained Coverage.

Creative Loafing has named Jonathan Maziarz as editor of the Sarasota edition. He succeeds Max Linsky, who has been named manager and online editor for Creative Loafing's corporate office. "With nearly 500 columns under his belt, Maziarz has edited newspapers in the mountains of Colorado, the shores of Lake Tahoe and, most recently, on the coast of Georgia," according to a press release. "I admire the Creative Loafing philosophy of providing a serious alternative to the mainstream media, mixing a strong sense of community with an independent spirit and a sense of humor," Maziarz says in the release. "I am ready to bring my experience, leadership and enthusiasm to the CL team."

The New York Times this weekend explored the movement of "mad pride," which entails people publicly speaking frankly about their experiences with mental illness. The Times noted that Philadelphia Weekly senior contributing editor Liz Spikol, who chronicles her struggles with bipolar disorder for the paper in her column and on her blog, is a leading and prominent voice in this area. Spikol says she's "so excited" to be in the article -- and so is her mom. "Imagine my mom seeing the link on Mother's Day, and keep in mind, we are a Jewish family," she writes. "We ran to WaWa to get a copy of the paper because, for some reason, I wouldn't believe it was 'real' until I saw the print edition." The Times also traces the origins of the prominent online forum and support network The Icarus Project to the alt-weekly world -- it began six years ago when "one of its founders ... wrote about his bipolar disorder in the San Francisco Bay Guardian."

The City Paper took home 10 2008 Golden Quill Awards, which were announced at a reception last night. The alt-weekly finished first in five categories -- Business reporting, Criticism, Cultural reporting, Enterprise/Investigative, and Sports -- and was also a finalist in five categories. The competition "recognizes professional excellence in written, photographic, broadcast and online journalism in Western Pennsylvania."

Facing increased scrutiny and concern over problems associated with freestanding news boxes, Mountain XPress distribution manager Sammy Cox (pictured) and publisher Jeff Fobes organized local publishers to form the Community Publishers Group (CPG). Members of the CPG now share the cost of purchasing and installing new multi-publication distribution units, which are installed in 36 locations throughout Asheville, N.C. According to Cox and Fobes, the new boxes conserve space and reduce clutter, and have pre-empted potentially harmful measures like news rack legislation. They spoke with AAN News recently by phone and email about the benefits these boxes and the CPG have had for Mountain XPress and the local publishing community.

Judge Marla Miller of San Francisco Superior Court said Friday she's inclined to boost a jury's damages award against the Weekly from $6.3 million to $15.6 million, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Miller, in what she described as a tentative decision, said she would triple the portion of the damages that equals one year of losses, bringing the total to $15.6 million. She also said she'll likely issue an injunction barring the Weekly from continuing to sell ads below cost. She is expected to make a final ruling this week. The Weekly says it will appeal. Read more from the Bay Guardian and the Weekly.