Ground will be broken on the new three-story building within the next two months, the Weekly reports. It will be the first office project in Palo Alto to be certified LEED "silver" -- a designation given when a building incorporates numerous environmentally sensitive features. "While it adds considerable complexity and cost, we wanted to use this project as an opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to these environmental principles and to create a building that will be healthy and comfortable for our employees, as well as a model for future developers," Weekly publisher Bill Johnson says. Construction is expected to be completed by summer 2009.

Continue ReadingPalo Alto Weekly Building New $5 Million ‘Green’ Headquarters

The paper was a finalist in the "Distinguished Service to the First Amendment" category for revealing that New Times was the target of a grand jury probe, a dust-up that resulted in the paper's founders being arrested. But despite the national honors and publicity surrounding the case, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio claims to still not know about the paper. "Is that a porno magazine?" Arpaio says in an interview with NPR, "feigning ignorance" upon reference of the publication's name. "You're talking about the weekly paper they have to give away free?" New Times founder Michael Lacey also talks to NPR about Arpaio, explaining the conditions that led to his being arrested. "What made them think they could get away with it is they've been gradually getting away with it for years here," Lacey says. "You begin with prisoners. Then you move on to Mexicans. Then you move on to editors and reporters."

Continue ReadingPhoenix New Times Recognized in Scripps Howard Journalism Awards

The South Carolina Press Association announced the winners of its 2007 news excellence competition Friday, and two AAN members were among the papers that were honored. Columbia Free Times finished first in three categories, including Mixed Media Illustration in the competition division open to all papers. In the weeklies division, Free Times swept the Illustrations category, placing first, second, and third; and took home a first-place award in Sports Column Writing. It also took home one additional second-place and one third-place award. The Charleston City Paper placed first in two categories -- Best Beat Reporting and General News Photo. City Paper also won one second-place and one third-place award.

Continue ReadingAlt-Weeklies Win Handful of South Carolina Press Awards

Times-Shamrock Communications this week announced plans to begin passing operational control of the company to the fourth generation of the Lynett-Haggerty family. Four family members will join publisher William R. Lynett as chief executive officers, since they've completed the company's Management Development Program, a four-year track that provides future Times-Shamrock leaders with experience in each of its three major divisions as well as a year interning at an outside media company. The company, through its Times-Shamrock Alternative Newsweekly Group, owns AAN members Baltimore City Paper, Metro Times, Orlando Weekly, and the San Antonio Current. Of the new CEOs, Scott Lynett and Bobby Lynett spent time working at City Paper; while George V. Lynett Jr. put in three years at the Current. In addition, City Paper promotions manager Greg Lynett will now take the helm as publisher of The Citizens Voice in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

Continue ReadingNew Generation Taking Times-Shamrock Helm

Metro and Boulevards are joining forces with a Bay Area NBC affiliate, two leading local citizen journalism sites, and the news aggregator Topix to create "a wide-ranging community-based news initiative ... that will span print, web, citizen journalism and broadcasting." Stories from Metro will be available for the broadcast partners to use, and stories from the citizen journalism sites and the TV network will be excerpted in a new section called "Mashup!" in Metro's print edition. "We are concerned about the consolidation, layoffs and disinvestment in local publishing and want to make sure that communities here are well covered," Dan Pulcrano, executive editor of Metro and CEO of Boulevards, says in a statement. "We will be expanding our news coverage and adding resources."

Continue ReadingMetro Newspapers & Boulevards Launch Virtual Valley Network

City Paper and Philadelphia radio station Y-Rock On XPN have each picked eight local bands to go head-to-head in the first "Philly Rock Shootout." The voting began this week, and the band that receives the most votes from each side will face off next week. The winner of that contest will be invited to play a showcase at this year's AAN Convention, to be held June 5-7 in Philly, as well as a Y-Rock festival. In addition, if City Paper wins, it gets to run the radio station for an hour; but if the alt-weekly loses, it will turn over a full page of its music section in an issue to Y-Rock.

Continue ReadingPhilly City Paper’s Local Band Battle Will Lead to AAN Convention

To celebrate his 30th anniversary at the Village Voice, the Brooklyn Academy of Music asked J. Hoberman to select films that have sparked some of his most stimulating reviews and articles, as well as a few personal favorites, in a series that begins next week. "30 Years of J. Hoberman" opens Monday with David Lynch's Eraserhead and runs through April 3. In an interview with Gothamist, Hoberman talks about the state of the film world, and reflects on his roots in the 1970s avant-garde film scene. When asked if he'd ever want to step behind the camera again, Hoberman says he's not sure. "I still have some ideas for things I was never able to realize twenty odd years ago but I don't know that I have the necessary desire," he says. "It's tough to make avant-garde films. You have to really will this stuff into the world."

Continue ReadingVillage Voice Critic Curates Film Series

A rash of free newspaper heists is "making unlikely allies of Bay Area alternative publishers, whose intense competition over the years has seemed as much personal as a matter of business," Editor & Publisher reports. East Bay Express publisher Hal Brody has organized a group of free-paper publishers that is taking the thieves on with a two-front strategy: finding an aggressive DA who recognizes the real value of a free-circulation newspaper, and going after the recyclers who look the other way, according to E&P. Brody says he wasn't aware how bad the problem was until he and others bought the Express from Village Voice Media last year. "In one heavily trafficked area, where we lay out literally thousands of papers at dawn, we'd get calls from readers at noon that there were all gone," he says.

Continue ReadingBay Area AAN Members Act to Fight Newspaper Theft

A number of stories and blog posts have come out since a jury ruled in favor of the Bay Guardian in its predatory pricing suit against SF Weekly and Village Voice Media yesterday. Here are some:

Continue ReadingReaction Pours in to Verdict in Bay Guardian/VVM Trial

"Like her fellow alt-weekly brethren, L.A. Weekly scribe Ella Taylor infuses prose with a touch of sass, delivering the well-read skinny on films great and small with dexterity and, oftentimes, the patience of a saint," Rotten Tomatoes writes. In this Q&A, Taylor talks about how she got into film criticism 19 years ago ("I was an uncomfortable academic sociologist who preferred journalistic to academic writing"), what she wanted to be as a kid when she grew up ("A shoe saleswoman") and the best part of being a film critic ("Free movies, and the regular opportunity to carp.")

Continue ReadingL.A. Weekly Film Critic Talks About Her Career and Work