"Now I know how the line workers at a bottling plant must have felt when they heard about Laverne and Shirley!," Chris Packham of Kansas City's The Pitch writes in reaction to the sitcom "set in the office of a dishy alternative weekly publication and blog" that ABC is considering. "You totally know this thing will be like Sex and the City with nose rings and ironic T-shirts. TV is not always the worst -- for instance, it's awesome when it tells stories about Battlestars or Detective McNulty -- but this has the unmistakable whiff of horrible, usually depicted by cartoonists as wavy stink lines."

Continue ReadingAnother Alt-Weekly Writer Weighs in on ‘The Weekly’

In a move that was widely expected, SF Weekly and Village Voice Media have announced they will appeal San Francisco Superior Court Judge Marla Miller's ruling in favor of the San Francisco Bay Guardian in the predatory-pricing case. Miller rejected arguments last week to overturn or modify the jury's March verdict. Calling the suit "economic terrorism," VVM CEO Jim Larkin claims "mom-and-pop advertisers in San Francisco will suffer from [Judge Miller's] handiwork, as will any aggressive new business in the city that attempts to challenge a larger, established competitor."

Continue ReadingSF Weekly Will Appeal Ruling in Bay Guardian Case

"Bob was a good man. Steady, confident, generous, and quick to smile beneath his salt and pepper 'stache," writes Chris Thompson in the East Bay Express. Thomas, who passed away July 12, ran the business side of the Express for six years in the 1990s. "Bob was the grownup who made sure the ads got sold, the circulation was working, the numbers got crunched; he took care of all the things our rumpus room needed," Thompson writes. "It wasn't fair that disease took his life so soon."

Continue ReadingAnother Paper Touched by Bob Thomas Marks His Passing

Dave Segal, who resigned as The Stranger's music editor in 2006 after secretly allowing an employee from ad sales to write pseudonymously for the paper's Line Out blog and music section, has been hired as a music writer. "Whatever Segal's missteps as an editor, he remains an impeccable music writer -- passionate, knowledgeable, diverse in his tastes -- and so, after several rounds of musical chairs, we're bringing him back as a staff writer," writes current music editor Eric Grandy. "He'll have no managerial responsibilities -- to the point, he won't be hiring any freelancers -- but he'll get to do what he's best at, which is writing about music." Segal was most recently music editor at OC Weekly.

Continue ReadingFormer Music Editor of The Stranger Returns as Staff Writer

In the non-daily print division, both the Memphis Flyer and Miami New Times won four first-place awards in the annual contest which "recognizes outstanding journalism in 11 southeastern states." The Flyer placed first in disaster coverage, editorial writing, feature reporting, and political reporting. It also tacked on two third-place finishes. Miami New Times finished first in consumer reporting, courts and law reporting, criticism (a category swept by alt-weeklies), and non-deadline news. New Times added one third-place finish as well. In addition, New Times Broward-Palm Beach took home two awards, including a first-place win for sports reporting; while both Mountain XPress and North Carolina's Independent Weekly went home with a second-place award. Winners were announced Saturday in Atlanta.

Continue ReadingAAN Members Fare Well at SPJ’s Green Eyeshade Awards

The Santa Barbara Independent's Robby Robbins, who is AAN's Classified Advertising Chair, was married on July 2 to longtime partner Bryan O'Quinn as part of the Express' Wedding Wednesdays promotion. The paper chose six couples to be married to celebrate same-sex couples' newfound right to legally marry in California. In attendance at the July 2 ceremony were a number of Independent staffers who drove up from Santa Barbara, as well as Gloria Mock, advertising director of North Carolina's Independent Weekly, where Robbins previously worked. "Bryan and I are so grateful to the East Bay Express, [publisher] Jody Colley, and all their partners/vendors for making this wonderful time more spectacular than we could ever have imagined," Robbins tells AAN News via email. For more photos click here, and for a video montage of all six weddings, click here.

Continue ReadingAAN Board Member Gets Married by East Bay Express