Will Swaim tells the Los Angeles Times that Republican lawyers are bankrolling the new Long Beach weekly. They provided enough seed money to allow the paper to operate for nine months without turning a profit. The District, which is set to launch in April, will have an initial press run of 30,000, with a "television version" of the paper planned for this summer. Swaim, who says he "stopped taking antidepressants and decided to leave" OC Weekly this winter, has plenty of former Weekly staffers in place at The District. He tells the Times they'll all be working from home so the paper can cut the cost of office space.

Continue ReadingMore Details on OC Weekly Founder’s New Paper Emerge

It's only fitting: The Austin Chronicle's Louis Black was one of the founders of South by Southwest, and now each year dozens of alt-weekly music writers pour into Austin to cover the festival. So if you weren't able to make it out to Austin for the annual festival of music, debauchery and ... more music, there are plenty of AAN members blogging it for you.

Continue ReadingAlt-Weeklies Are Blogging SXSW

Today, the six board members of the Texas Youth Commission (TYC) became the latest to resign in the wake of the Observer's February story on sexual abuse at a state youth correctional facility and its cover-up, the Dallas Morning News reports. The board resigned two days after the State Senate voted for their ouster, but not before they approved a rehabilitation plan for the TYC. Meanwhile, the Observer has uncovered yet another disciplinary report relating to the scandal that was altered with the apparent approval of the TYC's leadership.

Continue ReadingPolitical Fallout from Texas Observer Investigation Continues

Troy Johnson, the music editor at the San Diego alt-weekly, has been the host of the Emmy Award-winning Fox Rox for its run of nearly five years, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. "[The cancellation] was purely a financial decision," says the station's general manager Richard Doutre Jones. "I can't keep losing money on it." Fox Rox's last broadcast is scheduled for March 29. "The media exfoliates itself and it's our time to be shed," Johnson says. "Our ratings were on the slender side. We were Jared post-Subway."

Continue ReadingSan Diego CityBeat Editor’s TV Show is Cancelled

After a week of internet chatter and blogospheric speculation about the alt-weekly's story on the deceased starlet's "secret Native American love child," Inside Edition finally gets the paper to admit it was false. Reporter Steven Lemons, who wrote the story under the nom de plume Charles Tatum, admits to the TV tabloid that "absolutely none" of the story was true. "Our aim was to sort of make fun of all the Anna Nicole Smith coverage, you know, just the mania over that," an unnamed New Times editor tells Inside Edition.

Continue ReadingPhoenix New Times’ Anna Nicole Story is — Gasp! — a Hoax

"Being pregnant doesn't change the fact that there are issues in Jackson that I can bring to light through this newspaper," writes 19-year-old Melishia Grayson in her introductory column for the Jackson Free Press. Grayson is one of four recipients of AAN's Diversity Internship grants for the Winter/Spring 2007 cycle. The other grant recipients this cycle are Amanda Miller at Washington City Paper, Tuyet Nguyen at Westword, and Lauren Parajon at the Oklahoma Gazette. Established in 2001, the AAN Diversity Internship program awards four annual grants of up to $2,500 to talented young journalists of color.

Continue ReadingAAN Diversity Intern Uses Stereotypes as Motivation

Briony Penn, who was an AltWeekly Award finalist in 2002 for her columns in the Victoria alt-weekly, will seek to represent the Saanich Gulf-Islands riding in Canada's next federal election, according to the Globe and Mail. If she wins the Liberal nomination at a March 31 meeting, she will run against incumbent Gary Lunn in an election expected to be this spring. The longtime Green Party activist's decision to run with the Liberals was unexpected, but Penn says getting elected and changing policy is her first priority. "We can't wait around for proportional representation," she says.

Continue ReadingMonday Magazine Columnist Announces Run for Canadian Parliament