Backfence, publisher of a family of "hyperlocal" news sites, has seen the resignation of its CEO and the firing of two-thirds of its staff of 18, reports Paid Content by way of Poynter. Original co-founder Mark Potts (who disputes the layoff figures without providing a number of his own) has returned to lead the beleaguered company. In the last year and a half, Backfence has grown from its original community site in the D.C. area to include 13 sites across the nation. A Poynter contributor surmises, "some of Backfence's revenue trouble could be attributed to the reliance on a single, spotty advertising revenue stream rather than developing multiple revenue streams."
In an interview discussing his sophomore effort, The Blonde, Duane Swierczynski says his journalism career has made him a better writer. "It has beaten some of the bad writing out of my system," he tells the Journals. "Journalism teaches you to be concise; space, after all, is precious." But fiction has also helped make him a better editor and journalist. "I think writing fiction has helped me realize that story is king, even in non-fiction. When I edit stories for the City Paper, I find myself mostly looking for structure flaws -- hiccups in the storytelling -- and craving strong narratives that unfold like a novel. After all, journalism is just storytelling with the truth."
The nation's three largest newspaper publishers -- Gannett, McClatchy, and Tribune -- are teaming up to sell advertising jointly on their newspapers' Web sites, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. The companies will offer advertisers hassle-free one-stop shopping for display ads on all of their combined Internet sites. The joint effort, called "Open Network," is a clear attempt to win back advertisers that have defected in droves to Web portals such as Yahoo, AOL, and MSN. "Traditionally print newspaper companies have not worked well together to sell national ads in print," says Jack Williams, president of Gannett Digital. "We intend to sell Internet advertising differently."
Doug Harvey doesn't just sit around thinking about art; he also creates it. The alt-weekly critic will exhibit his paintings and sculptures in "Great Expectorations" this month and next at a gallery in L.A.’s Chinatown district. The gallery describes the exhibit as "a multi-faceted serial piece ... simultaneously disturbing and therapeutic." It's the artist-writer’s first solo show in almost a decade. ANOTHER ALT-WEEKLY WRITER-ARTIST: Austin Chronicle arts editor Robert Faires stars in "In on It," which returns this month after being "the Austin theater hit of the summer," says the Austin American-Statesman.
Memphis' daily newspaper beefed up its staff last year by hiring three seasoned alt-weekly veterans in the space of a few months. According to executives at the paper, the new hires don't reflect a conscious recruitment strategy, but the addition of investigative reporter Trevor Aaronson, music writer Bob Mehr and former C-Ville Weekly publisher Rob Jiranek (pictured) represents three small steps in the CA's efforts to adapt to the Internet age. "It's happening throughout the building," Jiranek says. "We're blowing up the newspaper."
The City of Brotherly Love is now the City of New Media Self-Marketing. The "uwishunu" campaign, announced by the mayor last week, marks the largest single investment by a U.S. city for a marketing effort centered on new media, according to the Bulletin. But print media also forms part of the two-year, $5 million plan. Along with a Web site featuring live blogging by locals and members of the Philadelphia arts community, the campaign will include custom-content inserts in alt-weeklies in New York, Boston, Providence, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. "The world has changed," proclaimed Philadelphia Mayor John Street, "and in this ever-changing world, people get their messages in a very different way."
Job ads for "The Real World" production assistants have been sited around Australia and traced back to the pioneering reality show's production company, reports TV Squad. Why Australia? The AOL blog offers a provocative thesis: that the reason for the trip abroad is that "alternative newsweeklies in American cities, like The Stranger in Seattle, have made it harder and harder for the Real World crew to shoot without interruption and open hostility from the locals." (Insert long pat on back here.) According to TV Squad, the Real World's last ventures abroad, in Paris and London, were not considered critical or popular successes.
The Wisconsin media company, which last year shuttered its faux-alt Coreweekly after 18 months, is set to launch a new free weekly on Feb. 15, Isthmus reports. The tabloid, named the Post, will start small -- 24 pages, 15,000 copies -- and include classified ads from the parent company's dailies and print versions of blog entries from Madison.com's "Post" page. The paper will be edited by a Madison blogger.
The Boston Herald's media reporter calls it "(a) big loss." A local TV guy says it's "an unwelcome blow to this city’s precious supply of sarcasm and creative loathing." All of this wailing and gnashing of teeth is for Joe Keohane, the Weekly Dig editor who announced yesterday that he was leaving the paper next month. "Singlehandedly, he has transformed a once-lousy altweekly into a lousy altweekly with a brilliant editorial (by himself) and a handful of other great features ... that spoke truth to power," says a Boston Globe blogger. Meanwhile, Dig president Jeff Lawrence wonders what all the fuss is about. After all, he tells the Herald, the Dig doesn’t encourage editorial employees to stick around for more than five years.
Gavin Borchert, an arts writer for the alt-weekly, has triumphed in the first Seattle Spelling Bee, reports the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The newly crowned 43-year-old champion defeated 11 other contestants -- including fellow AAN-affiliated writer Andrew Bleeker of The Stranger -- in an alcohol-drenched evening of "cockalorums" and "gjetost." For his efforts, Borchert received $200 in cash and gift certificates. That, and glory glorious glory.
