On Monday's episode of Jeopardy!, Isthmus arts and entertainment editor Kenneth Burns finished in first place with $21,600. He will take on two new challengers on the syndicated game show tonight. Burns tells 77 Square that his episodes were taped in California in January -- in fact, he happened to have a taping on the day Barack Obama was inaugurated. "I remember at about noon, (a Jeopardy! staffer) looked at her watch and said, 'Oh, we have a new president,'" Burns says. "It was a tense group of people, as you can imagine, but that was a tension breaker."

Continue ReadingIsthmus Editor Wins on First Day of ‘Jeopardy!’

Last week, City Pages announced that it was bringing longtime local radio host TD Mischke on to host a webcast streaming live on its website for two hours every weekday. Along with the daily web broadcast, Mischke -- who brought his own advertisers into the deal -- will screen original videos on citypages.com and publish a weekly column in the paper. MinnPost's David Brauer says the deal "show[s] how old and new media can be woven together."

Continue ReadingCity Pages Will Run Daily Webcast from Local Radio Legend

Rickey Wright passed away on Feb. 19 in Seattle after suffering from a series of small strokes. "He was a save-your-ass kind of writer," recalls former City Paper arts editor Glenn Dixon. "If someone didn't come through, and there were constantly people who didn't come through, Rickey would do the job. He'd write it well. He'd get it in on time -- always. He was never without ideas and he could cover any kind of music. I can't tell you how rare that is."

Continue ReadingFormer Washington City Paper Music Critic Dies

"In the new economic paradigm local economies will thrive and prosper based upon the vitality and engagement of local citizens, local businesses and local media," writes Terry Garrett in response to a Business Week story that claims "'local' doesn't mean much online." While Garrett concedes that local ad buying is down (along with just about all ad buying), he argues that in the future, media companies will do more than just sell ads. "If local media are to advance the prospects of a local economy, the definition of service has to include being the instigator, coordinator and (one of the) resource providers for local first initiatives," he writes. "It's a collaborative model that extends beyond ownership and control, and that I believe, is the biggest challenge for local media companies who are accustomed to owning media to extract ad value."

Continue ReadingConsultant: For Local Media to Succeed, It Must Embrace Local Economy

In a recent TIME cover story on the crisis facing journalism, former CNN CEO Walter Isaacson argued that newspapers that relied only on advertising for revenue were somehow more beholden to advertisers than readers. "It is telling that on the subject of the advertising-only revenue model, which Isaacson says is 'completely beholden' to advertisers, he turns to the opinions of Henry Luce, who has been dead for more than 40 years," Richard Karpel writes in a letter to the editor. He goes on to say that AAN's members "have generally written more critically of business -- and sometimes their own clients -- than most paid publications."

Continue ReadingAAN’s Executive Director Defends Ad-Only Revenue Model

Someone at the Reader office recently found an old manifesto written by the alt-weekly's founders in 1972, and the paper published it last week on its blog. Responding to the question "Why do we continue with this crazy project?," the manifesto reads: "1) We are convinced it will be successful eventually. 2) We really enjoy our work. 3) The paper seems to be fulfilling a definite need for 'alternative' publications which are nonetheless not 'radical.' 4) We are bringing exposure to some (potentially) great writers." MORE: "[The document is] a brash artifact of an era where, all across the country, small groups of news innovators took a flyer on an untested business model and editorial format," CJR's Clint Hendler writes. "And what they birthed, the alt-weekly, became the home to some of the country's best writers and best journalism."

Continue ReadingChicago Reader Reprints 1972 ‘Manifesto’