Patricia Calhoun, editor of Denver's Westword, joined director John Sayles and others associated with his new film, Silver City, on a promotional tour through Colorado. She has a cameo appearance as a journalist in the film. From her seat on the Silver City Express bus, she observes what happens as the movie premieres in several cities. Also on the tour was cartoonist Tom Tomorrow, whose work appears in many alt-weeklies.
Twelve former employees of the Cleveland Free Times have filed a lawsuit in Ohio against New Times and Village Voice Media, reports the San Francisco Bay Guardian. The suit is the latest fallout from an October 2002 deal between the two companies that shuttered Free Times and New Times Los Angeles. The deal led to a Justice Department antitrust investigation that culminated in a consent decree in which neither company admitted guilt. The suit alleges that the workers who lost their jobs when the two papers closed were terminated illegally; the lawyer who filed the suit is seeking class-action certification.
Catherine Nelson, associate publisher of AAN member Shepherd Express in Milwaukee, Wis., is scheduled to deliver a lecture titled "There Are Alternatives" at the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association convention next month. The PNA Web site describes Nelson, who was formerly publisher of two Pittsburgh alt-weeklies that went out of business, as "an industry guru on alternative papers." In addition to her position at Shepherd Express, Nelson presently serves as publisher of the new, daily-owned Core Weekly, which competes with AAN member Isthmus in Madison, Wis. (Scroll down the linked page to read about Nelson's lecture.)
The Chicago Reader will hit stands on Thursday, Sept. 16, with a colorful front page and new layout, marking its first redesign in 12 years, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. Rather than feature the text of the lead story, the new front page will read vertically and be highlighted by color photos and art above the fold. An advertisement will be below the fold. The paper's inner sections will also get front-page makeovers to prominently feature week-at-a-glance calendars and critics' picks. Editor Alison True tells reporter Eric Herman that the goal of the redesign was to put "a lot more information on the covers."
Some newspapers have begun allowing readers to buy goods directly through online classifieds or bid for merchandise on the papers' Web sites, but their entrance onto the e-commerce stage is off to a rocky start. The industry agrees that papers must have a strong presence online as readers spend more time on the Internet, but debates both readers' interest in local papers as online shopping destinations and whether such transactions can be profitable for newspapers.
ignaling a potential falloff in ad spending next year, WPP unit Millward Brown Tuesday released a survey indicating that far fewer senior level marketing executives plan to boost ad spending in the major media in 2005. The study, Millward Brown's so-called "Marketing & Media Snapshot 2004," was sponsored by Advertising.com and shows that online media continues to have the greatest ad budget expansion plans among marketers, with more than half planning to boost spending in the medium in both 2004 and 2005. However, the percentage of marketers planning to boost online ad outlays in 2005 fell more than three percentage points to 54.1 percent in 2005.
Ad spending across all media advanced 3.6 percent in 2003, led by a 15 percent increase in cable television, according to veteran advertising forecaster Robert Coen of Universal McCann in New York City. Overall, gains in national ad spending, up 4.8 percent, outpaced increases in local spending, which edged up 1.8 percent. Ad spending in newspapers returned to positive territory in 2003, up 1.9 percent, after two difficult years (see table, right). The overall newspaper ad gains last year began to accelerate in the fourth quarter and into the early part of 2004. Increases averaged 1.5 percent through the first nine months in 2003, rose 2.6 percent in the fourth quarter and went up 3.5 percent in first-quarter 2004. Preliminary, incomplete indicators on performance in the second quarter showed a gain of roughly 4 percent. However, those increases were neither uniform across all advertising categories nor uniform across geographic areas.
The Times Publishing Co., publisher of the St. Petersburg Times, has launched tbt*, a weekly paper apparently aimed at asterisk-loving young adults. According to the Times, tbt* delivers news in short chunks with colorful photos and no attempt at serious analysis, and bills itself as "zippy news for time-challenged adults." Features also include entertainment listings, shopping tips, and advice on computers and romance. Paul Tash, editor and chairman of Times Publishing, tells reporter Helen Huntley: "There's nothing else like it on the market." AAN-member Weekly Planet (Tampa) is distributed in the same area.
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