A new report issued by The Media Audit reveals that 43.8 million adults have read an alternative newsweekly or visited an alt-weekly website in the past 30 days. The study, which looked at 117 papers in 88 markets, reveals an average readership of 374,296 adults in 2007 compared to 362,938 in the previous year, a 3 percent increase. In addition, the average number of unique monthly web visitors in 2007 is up nearly 7 percent from 2006. "One of the benefits for alternative newsweeklies is the opportunity to reach outside the city where papers are not as readily available," says Bob Jordan, president of International Demographics. "There are a lot of people who come into the city from the suburbs for entertainment and these alternative newspaper websites are positioned as one of the best choices for restaurant, live music, and concert recommendations." RELATED: BizReport says "advertising in alternative newspapers could result in a gold mine for many advertisers."
City Paper contributor Arthur Delaney has won the Street Sense David Pike Excellence in Journalism award for "Median Man," his story about "Billi," a man living in a tent on the freeway. Delaney will be honored at a ceremony this Thursday.
Peter Ladner defeated Sam Sullivan on Sunday for the mayoral nomination of the Non-Partisan Association (NPA), a civic-level political party in Vancouver. "He dresses well, runs a weekly business publication and is pleased to describe himself as a 'fiscally conservative' member of the generally right-wing NPA," reports the Globe and Mail. But the Canadian daily also notes that Ladner is an "ex-hippie" who was a back-to-the-land farmer raising goats and chickens in the 1960s. He later worked for "the respected alternative weekly, Monday Magazine," and had plans in the 1980s to launch a new weekly to compete with AAN member The Georgia Straight. Those plans fizzled out, and Ladner instead launched Business in Vancouver, a weekly business publication. The general election is scheduled for November.
Weekly attorney Rod Kerr last week argued for a stay of the predatory-pricing trial's $15.6 million judgment until 10 days after Judge Marla Miller rules on post-trial motions, which could have delayed the enforcement until July 28, the Guardian reports. Kerr said that the current economic turmoil combined with the company's belief that the judgment amount would be substantially lowered during post-trial rulings made it hard for Village Voice Media to secure a bond for the full amount. The judge granted a stay, but only until June 18. She also said she'd allow "the defendants to return to court to ask for more time if they can provide evidence showing how it will result in a bond being issued," according to the Guardian. When reached by AAN News, a representative from VVM said the company had no comment on last week's development. Both sides will appear in court July 8 for post-trial motions, including one by VVM to throw out the verdict and order a new trial.
The daily paper stopped by this weekend's AAN Convention, and found "a shared belief that alternative weeklies will do just fine in the age of cyberspace and newsroom downsizing." Baltimore City Paper managing editor Erin Sullivan says that as the economy tanks, the paper is reallocating resources, concentrating "on investigative reporting and increasing our criticism. ... Things that the dailies can't or won't do with the same level of depth." Philadelphia City Paper founder Bruce Schimmel tells the Inquirer that competition from blogs and other media has pushed alt-weeklies to be even more aggressive. "Everyone has access to your morgue," he says, "so you better get it right."
Mosi Secret received the 2008 Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism in the non-daily category for "Stolen Youth," a story of 14-year-old Erick Daniels, who was convicted of robbery in 2001 and sentenced to more than a decade in prison. There was no physical evidence linking Daniels to the crime, and there were key discrepancies in witness testimony and police reports. Daniels is expected to receive a new trial this year, largely due to Secret's investigation. He will be honored at an October ceremony, and will receive a $1,000 prize. Once again, AAN members swept this category: Seattle Weekly's Huan Hsu was the runner-up in the category, and two Westword writers -- Luke Turf and Joel Warner -- received honorable mentions. Secret won the same prize last year.
The paper had been named as a party to a defamation suit by former assistant commissioner for the Chicago Department of Aviation James Sachay, which alleged that political activist Frank Coconate had written a comment on one of the Reader's blogs and attributed it to Sachay. The Reader "argued in its motion to dismiss that it enjoys immunity under Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act, which draws a distinction between a publisher that selects what to publish and the proprietor of a public web forum," Michael Miner writes. "This distinction holds even if the website provider makes some effort to police the site. (Someone here took down the offending comment sometime after it appeared.)" Last week the paper was dismissed as a defendant in response to a new motion filed by Sachay. His amended suit against only Coconate will continue.
A federal judge says the author and "Sonics Death Watch" columnist Sherman Alexie can testify for the city of Seattle in its trial next week against the Seattle SuperSonics, the Seattle Times reports. The team's ownership group wants to pay off the final two years of its lease at Seattle's arena and move the team to Oklahoma City for next season, while the city of Seattle is suing in federal court to force the team to fulfill the lease. The city's lawyers wanted to call Alexie because he's a season-ticket holder, a big fan and could discuss the team's importance in Seattle. Attorneys for the Sonics claimed he had nothing relevant to say, and had asked to get him off the witness list.
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