Boise Weekly writer Bill Cope addressed his June 28 column to his former boss Andy Hedden-Nicely, who founded the "United Party" in Idaho and is running as its candidate for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Cope praised Hedden-Nicely as an individual, but suggested that his third-party candidacy was a mistake in judgment. Hedden-Nicely's response in the paper's July 5 issue apes Cope's column structure. "I know you as a man of intelligence and integrity, and I'm confident that when you finally come to your senses and realize that the train has left the station -- that the Democrats are still hiding in the shadows trying to come up with a politically correct response -- you can jump on the United Party train," Hedden-Nicely writes.

Continue ReadingBoise Weekly Founder Takes Issue With Opinion Column

The battle against Gannett's exclusive newspaper-distribution networks has heated up in the last two months, with Jackson Free Press and The Independent Weekly (Lafayette, La.) publishing details in their print editions, JFP launching a "Goliath blog" to track Gannett's progress in Mississippi, and Editor & Publisher covering the controversy in its latest issue. For anyone still confused about how the "networks" are harmful to alt-weeklies, Darren Schwindaman has explained the process in a cartoon (available here), which ran as a full page in JFP's print edition.

Continue ReadingGannett Distribution Networks for Dummies