The alt-weekly placed first in nine categories in this year's Metro Louisville Journalism Awards: business reporting, minority affairs, editorial writing, column writing, feature photography, sports photography, review/criticism, headline writing, and page design. The winners of the awards, which are sponsored by the Metro Louisville chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, were announced last night.

Continue ReadingLouisville Eccentric Observer Wins 14 SPJ Awards

Matt Smith writes that this week's issue of The Nation, which features Jon Wiener's lament about changes that have taken place at LA Weekly since the paper changed hands in 2006, "reads as if were (sic) a schizophrenic-produced theme issue on your host, Village Voice Media." According to Smith, the July 16 issue of the weekly magazine juxtaposes Wiener's criticisms of the "staff cuts, heavy workload and misdirected investigative talent" at VVM with "another 3,000-word-plus story whose central thrust is based largely around Village Voice Media original reporting." In the latter, Liza Featherstone uses documents revealed in April by SF Weekly as a basis for her reporting on labor boss Andy Stern.

Continue ReadingSF Weekly: The Nation ‘Call[s] Bullshit on Itself’

After a judge agreed that his case could move forward, Dallas County Constable Mike Dupree resigned yesterday during a court hearing on a petition seeking to remove him from office, the Observer reports. The suit came on the heels of reports of Dupree's misconduct -- including sexual harassment of subordinates -- that were first revealed in the alt-weekly. In a separate Dupree-related matter, the police officer accepted a plea from the Texas attorney general's office charging him with misdemeanor abuse of power.

Continue ReadingConstable Dogged by Dallas Observer Resigns

That's what Jon Wiener argues in the Nation. Wiener claims the papers' new owners at Village Voice Media no longer cover "the forces trying to make LA a more egalitarian and less polarized city," and he laments what he calls LA Weekly's "editorial shift to the right" and a move towards "hyperlocalism" and "investigative hit pieces that target local bigwigs." UPDATE: On his blog, Matt Welch begs to differ.

Continue ReadingIs it ‘The End of an Era’ at LA Weekly and OC Weekly?

Earlier this month, Aaron Silverberg, the self-proclaimed "Buddhist tennis coach," was the subject of a Seattle Weekly profile highlighting his flute playing and his reading of sensual poetry to the girls he coached at Ballard High School. Last week, Silverberg was fired, according to the Weekly. He says the school's principal told him that "no matter what, when someone sees something with young girls referring to sex, it puts me in a gray area." For its part, the Weekly wonders why it took them to bring this to the light. "Where was the oversight from Ballard administrators? Why did it take a newspaper story to make them aware of Silverberg's supposed improprieties?"

Continue ReadingSeattle Weekly Story Leads to Firing of High School Tennis Coach

Since being purchased from Village Voice Media by a consortium of investors in May, the newly independent alt-weekly has been called on to name every person with ownership interests in the paper. Originally, the Express named only Pitch Weekly founder Hal Brody, Express editor Stephen Buel, Express co-founder Kelly Vance, and Monterey County Weekly CEO Bradley Zeve. Yesterday, the paper wrote on its blog, "Lest anyone assume that we are hiding anything related to the identity of our other colleagues, we are happy to formally introduce all our investors." The remaining investors: Gary Jenkins, founding partner of Kansas City-based Punch Software; Paul Ung, Oakland resident and spokesman for the UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia; Rick Watkins, president of the Kansas City real estate firm Watkins & Company; and Jay Youngdahl, a Cambridge-based managing partner of The Youngdahl Law Firm.

Continue ReadingEast Bay Express Reveals Unnamed Owners

"My son is almost an Eagle Scout and I took him to the library so he could do some research on birds," 60-year-old Richard Greathouse says. While at the library, he picked up a copy of the St. Louis alt-weekly, and didn't like what he saw. "They use the 'F' word in there ... They have a gal here who is naked with two hearts on the front advertising DVDs for $2.95," he says. "I'm trying to raise my children as Christians and they've got a lot of Christian people that go to that library." But despite Greathouse's complaint to the library's director, the Riverfront Times isn't going anywhere. "If we took everything out of the library that was not suitable for children or teenagers we would have a very small collection and we would have a lot of patrons very upset," library director Pam Klipsch says. The paper's editor, Tom Finkel, says he respects Greathouse's freedom of speech to criticize the paper, and wishes he'd respect theirs. "It's kind of ironic that in a country where we can say what we want, someone would want to muzzle a voice because he thinks it doesn't conform to what he thinks a proper publication is," Finkel says.

Continue ReadingThe Riverfront Times ‘Should Not Be in a Public Place,’ Man Says

In the Detroit Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists' annual awards, the alt-weekly finished first in three categories (criticism; cover design; spread design). The paper also took home two second-place (cover design; editorial page design) and three third-place (investigative reporting; feature news reporting; news columnist) awards in the competition.

Continue ReadingMetro Times Takes Home Eight SPJ Awards