The indictment accuses Nels Noseworthy of promoting prostitution by coordinating the placement of adult ads for the Nashville Scene, reports the Tennessean. The investigation leading to a grand jury's indictment lasted more than a year, and included undercover officers placing ads in the paper that, police contend, Noseworthy knew to be for prostitution. Scene Publisher Albie Del Favero calls the arrest retaliation for a story the paper recently ran about a DUI received by the police chief's son. A police spokesman brands that accusation "ridiculous."
Investigate reporter Gary Webb is remembered at Sacramento News & Review, where he had been on staff since August 2004. In a special feature, the paper compiles links to his articles, remembrances by friends and colleagues and retrospections upon his body of work. Webb is best known for his "Dark Alliances" series for the San Jose Mercury News and the subsequent (many contend unjust) virulent backlash against it in the mainstream press. A piece by Bill Forman and Melinda Welsh concludes with a transcript of a talk Webb gave in 1999, in which he tells his audience, "It's really kind of scary when you think about how capricious life is sometimes."
During the newspaper recession and the last few years of shaky recovery, wireless telephone service providers were aggressive and steady advertisers, all the more important because they pumped up revenues in the anemic national-ad category.But with Wednesday's announcement of the $35 billion merger of wireless giants Sprint and Nextel Communications -- which comes two months after Cingular's $41 billion acquisition of AT&T Wireless -- newspapers now must ask: With all this consolidation, will cell phone service providers hang up on newspapers?
Newspapers are still struggling to regain their revenue footing after the advertising recession. Now they face an image problem, too: They seem slow and stodgy when compared with some of their media rivals -- namely, cable and the Web.
This week, almost two dozen Association of Alternative Newsweeklies member papers published "Soldier's Heart," an article by freelance reporter Dan Frosch that casts a critical eye on the Department of Veterans Affairs' ability to properly treat Iraq War veterans with serious psychological problems. The article will appear in more than 40 AAN papers in coming weeks. Many of the participating weeklies will supplement the article -- AAN's latest collaborative story project -- with additional reporting to reflect the issue's regional and local impact. The collective stories can be found in a dedicated section of AltWeeklies.com.
Gary Webb, an award-winning investigative journalist and Sacramento News & Review political reporter, was found dead in his home on Friday morning of apparent self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head, reports the Sacramento Bee. Webb is best known for his work at the San Jose Mercury News, specifically a controversial series of articles called "Dark Alliances," which reported connections between crack dealers in South Central Los Angeles, the Nicaraguan Contra rebels and the Central Intelligence Agency. The News & Review hired Webb in August 2004 to cover politics and state government. He is survived by three children.
Interviewed by the Columbia Journalism Review's Campaign Desk, Washington City Paper editor Erik Wemple says the reports of his profession's death are greatly exaggerated. "I just am not buying into this journalistic apocalypse," he says. He thinks a lot of papers, including the one he edits, serve their communities well. Turning a critical eye on alt-weeklies, Wemple cites predictability as the root of "whatever malaise might exist" in the industry. "Alt-weeklies do descend from a certain tradition where it's no surprise that the editorial is slamming Bush or supporting Kerry or Nader," he says.
Recently departed L.A. Weekly writers like education reporter Howard Blume have been left baffled as to why they were fired or forced out. Pasadena Weekly reporter Joe Piasecki delves into changes at the 26-year-old Los Angeles alternative weekly that have led to staff anxiety and the filing of union grievances. Writer and union shop steward Erin Aubry Kaplan says the overall emphasis of the paper has gone to "softer stuff," but Editor-in-Chief Laurie Ochoa denies there is any trend toward "fluffier features and blander politics."
