Last month, the publishers of OPEN EXCHANGE MAGAZINE, a quarterly directory magazine in the Bay Area, began wondering why many of their news boxes were suspiciously empty. They started staking out locations in the early morning hours, and last week, they caught two people stealing their magazines, along with the East Bay Express, SF Weekly, San Francisco Bay Guardian and others. Since California law makes it a crime to steal more than 25 copies of any free paper, they filed this report with the Oakland Police Department.

Continue ReadingBay Area Publishers Catch Newspaper Thieves in the Act

It's time to recruit our next class for the Academy for Alternative Journalism, the training program for long-form writing and reporting that AAN funds every summer at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. To help spread the word, AAN is making available to members a display ad (PDF file) to run between and now and the Feb. 8 deadline. Feel free to amend the size of this ad to support your format, add your logo, or add additional language urging interested applicants to contact your paper directly about the program. If you have any questions about AAJ, contact Donna Ladd at the Jackson Free Press or Debra Silvestrin at the AAN office.

Continue ReadingHouse Ad Targeting Potential AAJ Applicants Now Available

Cecil Bothwell, who was fired from the XPress last month, is now a business partner in and news editor of Asheville City Paper. The paper, which is being started by the independent weekly Columbia City Paper, will be monthly at first and hopes to go bi-weekly by Spring. A press release posted at Bothwell's blog says the City Paper, "targeting an 18-45 liberal demographic, will feature hard-hitting investigative journalism and will cover national politics, local news and music." Managing editor Todd Morehead tells the Ashvegas blog: "We're all super excited and Cecil already has a gutsy investigative piece in the works that he says Mountain Xpress was 'too timid' to publish."

Continue ReadingFormer Mountain XPress Staffer Lands at Newly Launched Competitor

In examining the "challenge that news organizations face as they look for new ways to engage the public in political discourse while trying to remain fair and balanced in their own coverage," Poynter talks to ethics experts and news editors about how they deal with the political activities of new media contributors. While the editor of Cleveland's Plain Dealer thinks writers can contribute to or work on campaigns as long as they aren't being paid, National Public Radio's news blogger says establishing written guidelines with contributors -- whether they are paid or not -- is critical. "I think the issue here is transparency," he says, recommending that if a contributor has supported a particular campaign, that needs to be noted on the blog or column (s)he writes.

Continue ReadingPaid Partisans, Biased Bloggers, and Their Place in the Newsroom