The Stranger editor and syndicated columnist's story about how he and his boyfriend became parents will get the Broadway treatment, The Village Voice's Michael Musto reports (see Web Extras at end of column). Musto hears that the adaptation of The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant will be directed by Scott Elliott. "That's one more reason to hope the stagehand strike ends," says Musto.

Continue ReadingDan Savage’s Book to be Turned Into a Musical

This year's conference will be held Jan. 30 to Feb. 1 in San Francisco, and is designed for alt-weekly publishers, editors, electronic publishing personnel, and any other employees with responsibility for their paper's website. After two "big-picture" presentations by the New York Times' Nick Bilton and Tacoda Systems' Dave Morgan, the conference will be dedicated to practical, nuts-and-bolts programming on topics such as user-generated content, online video, blogging, tagging and social bookmarking, search-engine optimization, web analytics, social networking, legal issues and the mobile internet. For more information, or to register, visit the conference website.

Continue ReadingWeb Publishing Conference Program Set

The L.A. Weekly columnist's website "has supplanted traditional media as a primary source of strike news" for many, the New York Times reports. She's even been invoked in picket line chants. "Variety and The Reporter stink. We get our news from Nikki Finke," Ugly Betty writer Bill Wrubel chanted. Since the strike began, Finke has written 142 posts about it, the Times reports. She said she had worked almost around the clock for three weeks, and had fallen asleep at the computer four times. "It's been brutal, but it's also been exhilarating because I love news," she says. "I love it -- a scoop is better than sex." More on Finke from Bloomberg News.

Continue ReadingWriters’ Strike is Gold for Nikke Finke’s ‘Deadline Hollywood Daily’

The cover of the paper's annual gift guide depicts a tan-and-white hamster with a yarmulke and traditional payes, resting a front paw on a dreidel. "A rodent as a symbol for the Jew has a long and notorious history, which becomes apparent even if you do a rudimentary search on the internet," the Jewish Exponent reports. An angry letter to the Weekly reads: "Where did your art director receive her training? At the Heinrich Himmler Academy of Design?" The hamster, ironically enough, is the pet of the Weekly's Liz Spikol, who is Jewish. She tells the Exponent she doesn't find the image offensive, and she doesn't "understand why Orthodoxy would be offensive. I just thought it was a fun image in context of our theme," Spikol says. "I didn't find it problematic," adds an Anti-Defamation League regional director. "We don't find anything objectionable about this."

Continue ReadingPhiladelphia Weekly’s Jewish Hamster Ruffles Some Feathers

After discovering the only thing a candidate has to do is fill out a notarized nomination form to get on Arizona's Feb. 5 presidential-primary ballot, Weekly writer Jim Nintzel decided to offer readers a chance to seek the presidency. And thus, Project White House, the paper's first-ever presidential-primary contest, was born. Readers are invited to send their campaign materials via mail or email to Project White House. If deemed newsworthy, the paper will give their campaigns some ink. Even if not, the Weekly may still help them get on the ballot by notarizing their nomination forms at no cost.

Continue ReadingTucson Weekly Offers Readers a Chance to Seek Presidency