Washington City Paper classified manager Heather McAndrews says that in the first week of May, adult ads were up 38 percent over the same time last year; City Pages publisher Mark Bartel says adult ads there have "almost doubled;" and SF Weekly's adult ad count has jumped from 160 before Craigslist's new policy went into effect to 910 last week. One woman who advertises in both City Paper and Craigslist tells the alt-weekly that Craigslist's "standard is no good because you cannot really describe who you are."

Continue ReadingIs Craigslist’s New Adult Ad Policy Helping Alt-Weeklies?

The increasing amount of data available about online advertising is leading marketers to turn to data mavens to tweak campaigns based on what is and isn't working, the New York Times reports. Agencies can also use web ads to test out different themes, phrases and imagery before investing in old media ad buys, which are much more expensive. "It's nice to be able to tell your brand manager or the chief marketing officer which audience is interacting with the unit, what time of day, what day of the week, and what the response is on certain types of offers," Varick Media Management president Darren Herman says. "Before, nobody could really tell you that."

Continue ReadingAd Agencies Use Instantaneous Data to Adjust Online Strategies

Five alt-weeklies won a number of awards in the Oregon and Southwest Washington chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists' 2008 Excellence in Journalism Awards. Among non-daily newspapers in Oregon, Willamette Week took home 10 first-place awards, while Eugene Weekly took home one. Among alt-weeklies in the Northwest region, WW won six first-place awards; Seattle Weekly won four; the Missoula Independent won two; and the Pacific Northwest Inlander won one.

Continue ReadingAAN Members Pick Up Dozens of SPJ Awards in Pacific Northwest

In a blog post last Friday, Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster complained that politicians are attacking Craigslist for adult ads while ignoring Village Voice Media and other media outlets that run the same ads, because they have a "need for positive stories and campaign endorsements from those very same newspapers." VVM says it empathizes with Craigslist but finds much to be desired in the company's response. "They have a number of moralistic state Attorneys General threatening them over their adult ads, and a raft of bad press following the terrible tragedy in Boston that the company is admittedly in no way responsible for," VVM says in a press release. "But, the manner in which Buckmaster is responding to this pressure -- by disingenuously lashing out at competitors and caving to political pressure -- is inexcusable, and displays a remarkable lack of sound judgment."

Continue ReadingVVM to Craigslist CEO: There is Nothing Wrong With a Little Competition

Boise Weekly and Omaha's The Reader each recently received $1,250 from AAN to pursue ambitious diversity-related projects as part of AAN's Diversity Grant program. Last fall, the Diversity Committee expanded the scope of the program to include diversity-related projects; the grants to Boise Weekly and The Reader mark the first to be awarded to projects rather than interns.

Continue ReadingDiversity Grants Fund Innovative Projects at Two Alt-Weeklies

The paper changed its name to Santa Cruz Weekly earlier this month because "the metropolitan flavor of the name never fit well with the character of Santa Cruz." Plus they were tired of being mistaken for the bus company. "At a transformative moment in the publishing industry, we've adopted a decidedly newspaper-y name to express our optimism about weekly print," wrote editor Traci Hukill and executive editor Dan Pulcrano in a note announcing the change to readers.

Continue ReadingMetro Santa Cruz Adopts New Name and Design