Elections for several positions on the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies’ board of directors will be held on Saturday, June 18, the final day of this year’s annual convention. Members will vote during that morning’s annual meeting.

At this point, eight incumbents are running unopposed — three for different positions than they currently hold and five for their current positions. Three candidates are vying for two at-large seats. The field could grow larger, however, because anyone can be nominated from the floor at the annual meeting.

The open seats and candidates:

To acquaint AAN members with the candidates and their goals, AAN News has compiled a voter’s guide. Below are the two questions we asked each candidate. Responses follow.

1. What do you think are the most important issues AAN will face in the coming months and years?

2. If elected to the position you’re seeking, how will you help AAN define and achieve its goals?

President

Kenneth Neill

Kenneth Neill
Publisher, Memphis Flyer
Current Vice President and Membership Chair

1. By far the most important issue facing AAN in the immediate future is coping with the rapidly changing American print-media landscape. The much-ballyhooed “Internet Revolution” has finally hit our industry with the force of a hurricane, creating threats, yes, but also creating vast opportunities for those ready, willing and able to adapt to change. It’s time for all of us to address the editorial and business challenges posed by this revolution, and to do everything we can as an association to help our members protect their formidable print-media franchises, and to assist them in making the necessary transformation into what might be called the “electro-print” era.

2. We need to maintain our “alternative” perspective, and challenge ourselves to remain and/or become “cutting-edge media” in each and every one of our markets. In an America where corporate juggernauts dominate the mainstream, AAN’s role as a voice for independent journalism has never been more important. As an organization, AAN needs to do all it can to encourage creativity and quality performance in every area of our businesses, and to insure that the journalistic efforts of our 123 member-newspapers continue to be of relevance and importance to new generations of readers.

Vice President

Stephen Leon

Stephen Leon
Editor and publisher, Metroland
Current Organization/Bylaws Chair

1. Making sure we don’t lose members because they can’t figure out how to make money in the new media world. Seriously, I think the overall revenue picture for AAN papers is likely to change significantly — perhaps radically — within the next five to 10 years, and we need to be ready for that. For the association, that means (1) continuing to generate useful market-research and promotional tools to help members — especially smaller-market papers — protect and enhance their traditional revenue bases; and (2) foreseeing/creating new revenue opportunities and helping members tap into them.

Media consolidation (both outside and inside AAN) is always an issue, but I also think most of our member papers are still unique and independent voices that are much needed and appreciated in their communities. Here, the association should keep on doing what it has always done well (in myriad ways — conference programming, diversity grants, awards, altweeklies.com, etc.): Support the editorial excellence that forms the core of our raison d’etre. There may be 100 cool new things to do each day on the Internet, but the people in our communities still form tight bonds with our papers, and in times like these, we cannot let them down.

2. I will use my experience (18-year editor, 10-year publisher of smaller-market independent; plus experience on the board and the bylaws and membership committees) to help the board brainstorm new ways to confront the coming challenges in publishing. I will continue to work with the board to try to stimulate greater member participation (we did implement a few things this year toward that end), perhaps looking for new ways of reaching out to and seeking input from corners of the association — papers without board and/or committee connections, under-participating papers, rank-and-file staffers, etc. — who may feel distanced from AAN and what it does. I also will continue to push for more attention to the needs of our graphic design/production departments.

Classified Advertising Chair

Robby Robbins

Robby Robbins
Classified manager, Independent Weekly
Incumbent

1. With AAN now depending heavily on AAN CAN revenue, we simply have to stay on top of things. Over the past three years we have returned to actively monitoring the weekly operations and ad flow. This is crucial and our AAN staffers do an excellent job. We cannot wait until things are destitute. The proactive nature now in effect will need to continue and expand. Sales contests, ongoing contact with member papers, as well as pursuing marketing of the network will be key elements. The network’s challenge will be twofold: how do we keep from losing ad flow to the Web and how do we maintain paper compliance with ad publication?

2. With over three years as the Classified Chair under my belt, I consider us to be just hitting our stride. The AAN staff and I work fantastically together and are on the same page as to the needs of this network. My challenge over the next two years will be ad publication compliance. We simply have to publish these ads in our papers for the organization to benefit. Without the support of each and every member paper, this revenue that we have found so very useful for the betterment of AAN could quickly disappear. I feel that I can offer great assistance with over 11 years of association with this industry and the leadership of classified sections across the nation. I look forward to serving this extraordinary group for the next two years.

Display Advertising Chair

Carol Flagg

Carol Flagg
Advertising director, Austin Chronicle
Incumbent

1. With a changing media landscape that includes the proliferation of faux alts, media consolidation and even Weblogs, I think our biggest challenge is to maintain our relevance in the communities we serve. It gets harder and harder to distinguish our voice in an overly crowded environment, especially among younger readers. Individually and as an industry, we need to continue to engage our core audience as well as find new ways to attract younger readers to our products. The association needs to continue to devote resources to promote our editorial credibility and increase awareness of the alternative press, as well as explore other avenues and tools to help the membership reach out to younger readers.

2. As advertising chair, my primary responsibility is programming for our regional conferences and annual convention. My goal these past two years has been to help AAN develop programming that primarily addresses universal issues we all face, regardless of market and paper size. As we continue to enrich the new and improved AAN Web site with white papers and resources to help papers in the day-to-day business of publishing, we can devote more of our programming to addressing these big-picture issues.

Editorial Chair

Patricia Calhoun

Patricia Calhoun
Editor, Westword
Incumbent

1. Offering more and better services for member papers — and making sure that editorial departments get their fair share (and then some). Specifically, AAN can aid editorial staffs by providing more training materials — if not hands-on training — for staff writers. AAN should also continue to enable AAN editors to occasionally commission national stories that they might not otherwise be able to produce (ideally, stories that other AAN papers would like to publish, if not contribute to themselves).

2. I’ll offer editorial (and historical) perspective on what those goals are.

First Amendment Chair

Tim Redmond

Tim Redmond
Executive editor, San Francisco Bay Guardian
Incumbent

1. I fear that the next few years will bring another wave of ownership consolidation in the alternative press, and that will create tremendous stress for the organization. I also think that the next few years will be a time when AAN members, and the organization, will have to redefine themselves as Web outlets to capture more of our readers and advertisers.

2. As First Amendment Chair, I will work to keep AAN in the forefront of free-press issues and struggles in a time when repression and secrecy are the hallmarks of government. As an active member of the Independent Caucus, I will continue to work to make sure that the smaller, independent papers get fair representation on the AAN board and that the issues they face are not subsumed by the needs of the bigger papers and the chains.

Also: And this is very important: I am working hard to bring back Bloody Marys for the annual meeting and to ensure that there are adequate amounts of beer available for the Independent Caucus.

Organization/Bylaws Chair

Mark Zusman

Mark Zusman
Editor, Willamette Week

1. In my opinion, the most important issue that AAN faces is to embrace this mission: Giving its members the tools and confidence to change. Why change? Because the media landscape is experiencing unprecedented tremors. Those tremors are coming from faux-alt weeklies chasing our display advertisers, Craigslist, which is raiding our classified base, and the larger Web, which is targeting our readers. Rather than run scared, however, our industry should embrace the unique opportunities we have in front of us. All of our papers have the ability to shift our business model to take advantage of the Web, to capitalize on our quirky brand of feisty independent journalism and to strengthen our franchise because of our passionate commitment to local communities, not in spite of it. AAN is in a unique position to help our papers take advantage of this period of upheaval.

2. I’ll probably learn more from the board than it will from me, but I’d love the opportunity nevertheless. For many years, I have been the editor of Willamette Week. I’m also one of the two owners of WW and the Santa Fe Reporter: In Santa Fe, we compete against a highly successful entertainment tab published by the daily. In Portland, we compete against a daily that employs our former arts and entertainment editor, a weekly that receives financial support from the Chicago Reader and the growing influence of Craigslist. Our paper is now stronger because of these competitive pressures. We emphasize quality journalism out of the belief that it is this passion that is our greatest strength, and we would like to think that the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting that we were honored with this year is in recognition of that. But publishing good journalism is not enough; it’s a platform that our papers should use to manage businesses that succeed in all areas.

By way of relevant biography: many years ago, in the Paleolithic era, I served the board as the Editorial Chair. I have also served as President of the Institute of Alternative Journalism.

Membership Chair

Paula Routly

Paula Routly
Co-publisher and -editor, Seven Days
Current at-large member

1. AAN needs to maintain — and hopefully improve — its relevance to members, knowing the divide between large chains and small papers is ever widening. Given the organization’s tremendous income dependence on the classifieds network, it also needs to stay nimble enough to identify and develop new revenue sources. We should have invented Craigslist!

2. Five years on the Admissions Committee — and four on the board — have prepared me to lead the evaluation process for applying papers: By defining what an alt weekly is — and isn’t — and setting editorial standards for member papers, the Admissions Committee really shapes the content of AAN. If elected, I will work to recruit and direct a diverse group of readers who can recognize unique market challenges and editorial excellence. Nobody else will do it.

At-Large

Penelope Huston Baer

Penelope Huston Baer
Classified manager, Santa Barbara Independent
Incumbent

1. The continuing issues of diversity and the ever-mutating definition of “alternative” aside, the most important issue facing the association itself is revenue. If we want to continue to support the member papers with relevant marketing and editorial tools, we need to continue to feed and grow our current advertising-based revenue streams while exploring new sources of income. AAN’s member papers also face the issue of finding and defining new revenue streams — most alt weeklies have been trying to find ways to compete with Craigslist and the changing classified model. As I see it, competing with Craig’s free ad model is futile; instead, we should use our local brand strength to build both revenue and community. We already own the mindshare we have been scrambling to secure; let’s learn to use it rather than cloning the Craigslist model. Additionally, we are facing issues of a changing demographic and aging readership; we need to open our pages, both print and electronic, to include younger readers. Buy me a drink at the conference and I’ll happily talk your ear off about the future of classifieds and online marketplaces as I see them….

2. I’ve been in this industry for the past 15+ years and have enjoyed serving the association through my involvement in committees and on the board. As a woman, and one who is not a publisher, I bring a unique and diverse voice to the conversation and I feel it is important to protect and preserve those diversities in our representation. If re-elected, I will continue to promote an alternative viewpoint.

Bingo Barnes

Bingo Barnes
Co-owner and editor, Boise Weekly

1. This year may see the first daily-owned alt-weeklies accepted for AAN membership. This is a fundamental change that reflects the changing ownership of our industry. Over the years AAN has grown to represent newspaper companies that range from the independently and locally owned Mom & Pops (like Boise Weekly) to papers that belong to large corporate newspaper chains. Our industry is facing changes in the media spectrum, including impacts of radio, television and the Internet that will impact the future of print media. It is important that AAN continue to expand and be forward thinking. AAN must continue to create a support network that will foster an environment where the ideals of alternative journalism can avoid being drowned out by corporate media interests interested only in stockholders.

2. I represent the locally owned Mom & Pop newspaper although I have worked for an alt-weekly chain and for a daily-owned alt-weekly — giving me a unique perspective of both sides of the fence. While an owner/editor now, my tenure with alt-weeklies over the past 15 years has been with art direction, production and design. I would bring that perspective to a board that has traditionally been dominated by editors and publishers. I feel that the collective bargaining power of AAN can lower costs to member papers in the areas of software, insurance, circulation (Trader and Distributech) and newsstand providers and would work towards developing such efforts. Finally, our experience in Boise with one of Gannett’s first faux-alt newspapers may bring insight and strategies to AAN to combat an industry assaulting our readers with pabulum.

Joe Piasecki

Joe Piasecki
Deputy editor, Pasadena Weekly

1. A lot has been said about competition posed by large, corporate-driven media outlets making a run on alt-weekly territory. The only answer is to attack these mammoth-but-clumsy media operations — and not just in our papers, but on their own turf. Alternative weeklies must become increasingly aggressive in breaking and reporting news, schooling mass media on exactly what makes us the most immediate, relevant and reliable sources for what people not only want, but need, to hear. There is no reason AAN and, by virtue of the organization, each of its members, should remain largely absent from television, radio and Internet news outlets while a moderate Republican debates a rightwing extremist to create the illusion of balance. It’s time to let everyone, including the readers and advertisers in every news market, know AAN members’ brand of unique, hard-knuckled truth-telling is more relevant and necessary than ever. As a more united and organized front, we will not only entrench ourselves in the hearts and minds of readers but begin directing the news cycle itself.

In order to cement our place as a dominant news outlet in this ever topsy-turvy world, it is essential that AAN not only welcome and encourage but seek out minority-owned and/or -managed newspapers for inclusion. Of course that could be a daunting task in many communities, but in others it is a connection begging to be made. While it’s sometimes all-too-tempting to pat ourselves on the back for the highly specialized and commendable work that we do, it has become increasingly important for us to allow a more diverse array of individuals to make us see with their eyes what we are, for whatever reason, unable to see with our own.

2. Allowing AAN and its member papers to thrive in such ways is surprisingly easier than one may think. To attack our corporate media challengers, who no matter how hard they try can never be what we are, on all media fronts we must make ourselves too obvious to ignore. For example, a contact sheet promoting alt-weekly experts and blockbuster member stories could be sent regularly to every news desk in the country. AAN should also produce original news stories, like the one by Jason Vest last year that got us all on CNN, on a more regular basis, preferably employing the experts already at our fingertips as members. To diversify ourselves with respect to race and age, we need look no further than our own local colleges and junior colleges to tap into up-and-coming talent before they find themselves recruited to the mainstream. AAN has made solid efforts in this direction, but with increased dedication could reach out in a broader, more direct way. Every action taken by the board and AAN staff, who should be commended for the difficult work they have started, must aim to increase our presence to readers and, in turn, the national advertisers seeking to reach them.