Washington City Paper leads the field with six nominations for Alternative Newsweekly Awards this year, followed by Dallas Observer with five.

The order of finish in each category of the eighth annual contest will be announced June 6 at the Alternative Newsweekly Awards luncheon during the AAN Annual Convention in Pittsburgh.

Other papers taking multiple awards this year are Chicago Reader, Pittsburgh City Paper, LA Weekly, The Texas Observer, The Pitch, Gambit Weekly, Cleveland Scene, all with three, and The Village Voice, MetroBEAT, San Francisco Bay Guardian, The Local Planet Weekly, Phoenix New Times, Charleston City Paper, Seven Days, Cincinnati CityBeat, OC Weekly, Folio Weekly, City Pages (Twin Cities) and Miami New Times, with two each.

It was an auspicious debut for Greenville, South Carolina's MetroBEAT, which matched The Local Planet Weekly's record for new-member nominations set last year. MetroBEAT was the only paper admitted to the association at the 2002 Convention in Madison, Wis.

Among individual contestants, Heather Swaim of OC Weekly and Thomas Francis of Cleveland Scene were the only AAN members nominated in two categories. Swaim was selected in cover design and editorial layout, while Francis picked up nominations in media reporting and news story.

Several individuals who were previous winners in the contest were nominated again this year, including Francis, Nate Blakeslee of The Texas Observer, Tricia Booker and Walter Coker of Folio Weekly, Jim Schutze of Dallas Observer, Monica Kendrick of Chicago Reader, Barbara Solow of Independent Weekly, Amy Silverman of Phoenix New Times, Glenn Dixon and Jason Cherkis, Washington City Paper, Chris Potter, Pittsburgh City Paper, David Jayne, Reno News & Review, Bill Smith of LA Weekly, Amy Pastre and Nancy Santos of Charleston City Paper, Brad Zellar, City Pages (Twin Cities), and Dora Sison, Sara Roahen and Scott Jordan of Gambit Weekly.

And in the Cartoon category, Chris Ware, Garret Gaston and Ruben Bolling (Ken Fisher) have all been winners in previous years.

For Blakeslee it was the sixth nomination in the last four years, and for Folio Weekly Photo Editor Coker, it was the fifth year that he has been nominated.

New Times LA, which was shuttered late last year, was nominated for Ron Russell's investigative story, "Mouth Wide Shut." Al Diamon was nominated for his political column, which he brought to the Portland Phoenix last March after being fired along with the rest of the Casco Bay Weekly editorial staff. Casco Bay Weekly was later closed, and then reopened as a community paper.

Judges in the arts feature and column categories declined to present any awards this year in the small circulation division. And in editorial layout, the judges didn't select a first-place winner among the small papers.

In several other categories, only first-place winners were named, ending the drama of declaring a victor. So congratulations can now be extended to: Barbara Solow of Independent Weekly for her business story "Blue Notes;" Chuck Strouse of New Times Broward-Palm Beach for column writing; Leslie Blade of Cincinnati CityBeat for her investigative story "Piling On;" and to Monica Kendricks of Chicago Reader and Scott Jordan of Gambit Weekly for music criticism.

Following are the nominees in alphabetical order by the name of the newspaper:

ARTS CRITICISM

Circulation < 50,000
Rodney Welch, Columbia Free Times
S. Michael Bowen, Pacific Northwest Inlander
Margaret Regan, Tucson Weekly

Circulation > 50,000
John Powers, LA Weekly
Joy Press, The Village Voice
Glenn Dixon, Washington City Paper
Robert Lalasz, Washington City Paper

ARTS FEATURE

Circulation < 50,000
No award

Circulation > 50,000
"Temma Lowly and the Meaning of Life," Fred Camper, Chicago Reader
"Plays Well with Others," Andy Newman, Pittsburgh City Paper
"Dancing with the Butoh Masters," Bernice Yeung, SF Weekly

BUSINESS REPORTING

Circulation < 50,000
"Blue Notes," Barbara Solow, Independent Weekly

Circulation > 50,000
"Enough to Make You Sick," Thomas Korosec, Dallas Observer
"Accounting for Anguish," Gayle Reaves, Fort Worth Weekly

CARTOON

4 or fewer papers
"La Petite Camera," Garret Gaston
"Slowpoke," Jen Sorenson
“Suspect Device," Greg Peters
Various Strips, Chris Ware

5 or more papers
"The City," Derf (John Backderf)
"Tom the Dancing Bug," Ruben Bolling (Ken Fisher)

COLUMN

Circulation < 50,000
No award

Circulation > 50,000
Chuck Strouse, New Times Broward-Palm Beach

COLUMN-POLITICAL COMMENTARY

Circulation < 50,000
James Shannon, MetroBEAT
Al Diamon, Portland Phoenix
Nate Blakeslee, The Texas Observer

Circulation > 50,000
Jim Schutze, Dallas Observer
Robert Nelson, Phoenix New Times
Chris Potter, Pittsburgh City Paper

COVER DESIGN

Circulation < 50,000
Amy Pastre, Charleston City Paper
Dora Sison, Gambit Weekly
David Jayne, Andrea Diaz & David Robert, Reno News & Review
Alex Abatie, Santa Barbara Independent
Don Eggert & Diane Sullivan, Seven Days

Circulation > 50,000
Bill Smith, LA Weekly
Heather Swaim, OC Weekly
Brian Hogan, Philadelphia City Paper
Tricia Reinhold, Heather Mull & Brian Holderman, Pittsburgh City Paper
Todd Bates, Weekly Planet (Tampa)
Jay Vollmar, Westword

EDITORIAL LAYOUT

Circulation < 50,000
Honorable Mention: "Driving Green," Monterey County Coast Weekly

Circulation > 50,000
"Hope in Hell," Frank Goodenough, Dallas Observer
"Bombshell," Heather Swaim, OC Weekly
"Oh, My Goth," Doug Kubert & Jay Thornton, The Pitch

FEATURE STORY

Circulation < 50,000
"Jump Jim Crow," Ron Netsky, City Newspaper
"Long Lost Friend," Tricia Booker, Folio Weekly
"Five Days in the Psych Ward," Adrienne Martini, Metro Pulse
"Justice Denied," Jill Kramer, Pacific Sun

Circulation > 50,000
"Little Big Man," Brad Zellar, City Pages (Twin Cities)
"Crazy White Mother," Glenna Whitley, Dallas Observer
"The Others," Jason Cherkis, Washington City Paper
"Little Big Shot," Annys Shin, Washington City Paper

FOOD WRITING

Circulation < 50,000
Sara Roahen, Gambit Weekly
Gary Laing & Sam Lange, The Local Planet Weekly

Circulation > 50,000
Dara Moskowitz, City Pages (Twin Cities)
Naomi Wise, San Diego Reader
Paul Reidinger, San Francisco Bay Guardian

ILLUSTRATION

Circulation < 50,000
"Does Your Vote Count?" Ryan Greis & Sean Hughes, Cincinnati CityBeat
"Overwhelmed," Gregory Dickens, MetroBEAT
"Fat Chance," Harry Bliss, Seven Days

Circulation > 50,000
"How to Succeed in Business," Josef Gast, Cleveland Scene
"Campbell's Cuts," Jeremy Bruneel, The Georgia Straight
"To Dive For," David Terrill, The Pitch
"Lien Times," Christiane Granert, Washington City Paper

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING

Circulation < 50,000
"Piling On," Leslie Blade, Cincinnati CityBeat

Circulation > 50,000
"The Sinister Side of Yusuf Bey's Empire," Chris Thompson, East Bay Express
"Mouth Wide Shut," Ron Russell, New Times Los Angeles
"The Lush Life of a Rudy Appointee: Russell Harding," Tom Robbins, The Village Voice

MEDIA REPORTING

Circulation < 50,000
"The State of Radio," Jeremy Hadley, Tom Grant & Rob Wilkinson, The Local Planet Weekly
"Copping Out," Maria Luisa Tucker, Santa Fe Reporter

Circulation > 50,000
"Hip-Hopcrisy," Thomas Francis, Cleveland Scene
"Reality TV Bites," Jennifer Mathieu, Houston Press
"Incessant Static," Kathy Glasgow, Miami New Times
"Professor Soundbite," Amy Roe, Willamette Week

MUSIC CRITICISM

Circulation > 50,000
Scott Jordan, Gambit Weekly

Circulation > 50,000
Monica Kendrick, Chicago Reader

NEWS FEATURE

Circulation < 50,000
"Schenectady Calling," Nancy Guerin, Metroland
"A Trial in Tulia," Liliana Ibara, The Texas Observer

Circulation > 50,000
"Killer on the Loose," Mike Sala, Chicago Reader
"Dirty or Duped?" Mark Donald, Dallas Observer
"Drugstore Cowboys," Justin Berton, East Bay Express
"The Bishops Set Me Up!" Jason Cherkis, Joe Dempsey, Sarah Godfrey, David Morton, Annys Shin, Chris Shott, Elissa Silverman and Erik Wemple, Washington City Paper

NEWS STORY

Circulation < 50,000
Terje Langeland, Colorado Spring Independent
Traci Moyer, Illinois Times
Tim McGivern, Weekly Alibi

Circulation > 50, 000
Thomas Francis, Cleveland Scene
Amy Silverman, Phoenix New Times
Joe Miller, The Pitch

PHOTOGRAPHY

Circulation < 50,000
"Portraits and Profile," Nancy Santos, Charleston City Paper
"Through the Lens," Walter Coker, Folio Weekly
"Brotherhood of the Neighborhood," Bill Kennedy, The Texas Observer

Circulation > 50,000
"Microbat, Broken Skulls ...," Max S. Gerber, LA Weekly
"We're #1," Steve Satterwhite, Miami New Times
"Local Discovery Awards," Saul Bromberg & Sandra Hoover, San Francisco Bay Guardian