Pasadena police say they arrested a 26-year-old man on suspicion of grand theft yesterday. They think he's responsible for stealing 18 Pasadena Weekly news boxes over the past few months. The boxes, which are bolted to the ground, may have been stolen for their metal, cops say. MORE: In other thievery news, Las Vegas CityLife reports that a bill is being considered in Nevada that would make taking more than 10 copies of a free newspaper a misdemeanor.

Continue ReadingMan Who Allegedly Stole Pasadena Weekly News Boxes Arrested

The Portland, Ore., alt-weekly was the latest to announce company-wide salary reductions yesterday. Effective March 16, staff pay will be reduced by 8 percent, while owners Mark Zusman and Richard Meeker will reduce their own pay by 25 percent. The move was made to keep the paper profitable for the balance of 2009. At the same meeting, Meeker, who is WW's publisher, announced that this week's paper was the largest since November and that ad sales for the spring appear ahead of budget.

Continue ReadingWillamette Week Introduces Cost-Cutting Measures

The budget President Obama just signed includes $1 million for the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS), which will mediate disputes over FOIA requests and act as a government-wide ombudsman for FOIA issues. The budget also houses OGIS in the National Archives, not the Department of Justice, where the Bush administration had attempted to place it. "OGIS should help end stalemates and lengthy delays when faced with controversies over disclosure decisions," Rick Blum, coordinator of the Sunshine in Government Initiative, tells Broadcasting & Cable. "This investment will help agencies strengthen their responses to FOIA requests."

Continue ReadingFOIA Ombudsman Gets $1 Million in New Budget

The alt-weekly recently published on its blog a state database containing the names and addresses of Arkansans who hold permits to carry concealed handguns, but after an uproar from gun lobby and death threats made against Times editor Max Brantley and his family, the paper took the database down. Not long after, the state House of Representatives introduced and passed by a 98-1 vote a bill that would prohibit revealing "the identities or other information concerning concealed handgun licensees." Sponsors of the bill argued that doing so put handgun owners at risk.

Continue ReadingArkansas Times Publishes Concealed Weapons Data, Causes Backlash

As part of a larger redesign, the paper has decided to pull listings from the printed page entirely. "We simply don't have the resources -- in people-power or page count -- to continue" printing listings, editor Stephen George writes. He notes that Louisville's Gannett papers have replaced much of their cultural reporting and criticism with listings. "We've realized that instead of trying to compete, we should fill the gaps," he writes. "Our real value to you, we believe, is our judgment and expertise on matters of arts and culture." To that end, LEO is launching a blog that will hip readers to cultural events the paper finds worthwhile.

Continue ReadingLEO Weekly Eliminates Listings from Print Edition

Atalaya Capital Management said in court this morning that if it assumed control of the six-paper chain, it would continue to operate the newspapers "as a going concern" and put more money into the company rather than sell it off, Wayne Garcia reports. Atalaya, CL's biggest creditor, is seeking to wrest ownership of the company from CEO Ben Eason because it has "lost confidence" in his management. MORE: Later in the day's hearing, an expert on valuation testified that CL's value as a company had dropped more than $7 million in the three months after it declared bankruptcy. CL will make its case in court on Thursday.

Continue ReadingCreative Loafing Back in Bankruptcy Court Today

There's "a bona fide resurgence of interest in the Vietnam-era radical press," David Downs writes in CJR, noting the Village Voice's scanning of its archives and a new book on "the graphic design of radical press." Underground press vets Abe Peck and Todd Gitlin tell Downs how the forebears to today's alt-weeklies came and, in many cases, quickly went. "For all their flaws, they captured the period," Peck says. "They were innovative in terms of their display and in terms of the prose that wasn't jibberish. Some of it was very smart. Some of it was very weird." MORE: For about a year, Voice editors have been working their way through old issues of the paper, posting excerpts on a daily basis. They're now up to Sept. 1962.

Continue ReadingReflections on the Underground Press of the 1960s

Google will begin showing ads today to web users based on their previous online activities -- a practice known as behavioral targeting, the New York Times reports. Google will also give users the ability to see and edit the information that it has compiled about their interests. Like some of its rivals, Google also offering an option to opt out from what it calls "interest-based advertising."

Continue ReadingGoogle Starts Behavioral Targeting With a Hint of Transparency