Studies released yesterday by America Online and BURST! Media signal strong e-commerce sales this holiday season. AOL found that consumers who research and/or shop online intend to do 53 percent of their holiday shopping online, while BURST! reported that 57.6 percent of consumers surveyed online with a household income of $75,000 or more plan to do more than half of their shopping online.

Continue ReadingStrong Online Sales Predicted for Holidays

Scott Walsey, publisher of Creative Loafing (Atlanta), will leave the paper at the end of the year, reports CL editor-in-chief Ken Edelstein. Walsey has been at the paper for 26 years, and has served as its publisher since the 2000 merger between Weekly Planet and Creative Loafing, Inc. "He's provided employees with leadership, stability and a great sense of humor," writes Edelstein. "[Walsey is] a wise and decent person who did things like remind folks to place family and friends above work." CL's next publisher will be Scott Patterson, an experienced newspaperman who has published dailies, community papers and shoppers.

Continue ReadingCreative Loafing Publisher Stepping Down

Peter Cox, co-founder of the statewide alternative weekly, died last week from esophageal cancer, the Portland Press Herald reports. Cox had written that he and co-founder John Cole started Maine Times in 1968 because, "We wanted to cover issues rather than events and we believed in the community of Maine.” According to the Press Herald, "In its early years especially, the alternative weekly wrote about issues the traditional press had long neglected." Cox sold the paper in 1985, but later returned for a short stint as editor and also served as a columnist for several years. His memoir, Journalism Matters, will be published in December.

Continue ReadingMaine Times Co-Founder Dies

Steve Bailey of the Boston Globe looks at the impending battle between Boston Phoenix and Boston's Weekly Dig. He writes that "others have tried to take on [Phoenix publisher Stephen] Mindich and failed," and that the owners of Boston and Philadelphia magazines "have bought the five-year-old Weekly Dig with plans to pour in the resources and turn up the heat on the Phoenix." Bailey paints a picture of Old Guard vs. Youth Movement, of Champion vs. Challenger, before surmising, "More newspapers are better than fewer newspapers."

Continue ReadingBoston’s Phoenix and Weekly Dig Set to Tangle

Sacramento News & Review president and CEO Jeff von Kaenel was sick of the Sacramento Bee offering advertisers huge discounts in Ticket, the daily's arts and entertainment weekly insert, reports Sacramento Business Journal. So he sent out 250 letters to Bee advertisers that weren't getting discounts -- that is, Bee advertisers that hadn't been poached away from the News & Review -- citing the cheaper rates and asking, "Are you paying this?" Von Kaenel tells SBJ that he sees the discounts as the Bee's attempt to "take us out," and that the daily is "engaging in practices I believe are suspect."

Continue ReadingNews & Review Launches Counterattack on the Sacramento Bee

Last weekend, the Hoosier Environmental Council presented NUVO a Green Business Award in recognition of its eco-friendly practices. The Indianapolis alt-weekly uses newsprint with 80 percent recycled content and takes energy-saving measures, such as having lights and computers on sleep mode. In an online staff report, NUVO suggests that conservation-minded readers "take the time to ask your favorite local newspaper to consider a higher-recycled content."

Continue ReadingNUVO Receives Environmental Award

The Religion Newswriters Association has awarded news and investigative reporter Gustavo Arellano a Lilly Scholarship for his reportage on the child-abuse scandal in the Catholic Diocese of Orange County, Calif. According to an OC Weekly press release, he is one of just seven winners for 2004. The non-profit and nonpartisan association awards the scholarships to allow writers to pursue religious studies.

Continue ReadingOC Weekly Reporter Awarded Prestigious Scholarship