Career services coordinator Gina Boubion will attend this year's convention to talk to prospective students about mid-career programs at Columbia, and to connect with editors who are looking to hire both entry-level and more experienced journalists. "Every year more and more of our students come to Columbia to advance their investigative and narrative skills, and they've definitely gotten the message from us and their professors that the alt-weeklies are fertile ground for doing the kind of journalism they crave to do," Boubion says.

Continue ReadingColumbia J-School Makes Push to Connect With Alt-Weeklies

Stephen Buel, co-owner and editor of the newly independent Express, tells the San Francisco Chronicle that he will aim for a "better mix" of story lengths and more community and government meeting coverage, and will bring back calendar listings and staff-generated movie reviews. The paper will also be redesigned, in print and online. "Readers won't see the changes next week," Buel said. "But in six or so months, they can decide whether they like them or not."

Continue ReadingNew East Bay Express Owner On the Changes to Come

On Wednesday, the New York Police Department released documents relating to what the New York Times calls the department's "extensive and secretive surveillance" leading up to 2004's Republican National Convention. Among the documents was a Nov. 13, 2003 dossier (PDF file) that said "activists are talking, some with barely hidden glee, about the possibility of violence" on the syndicated cartoonist's site. Saying it is a "compliment I don't deserve," Rall takes issue with the NYPD's short bio that calls him "a nationally known activist figure." He writes: "I'm no activist ... many of my friends are activists, and I admire them for it. Next to them, I'm a mere lump on a log who opines on current events from behind my computer and drafting table."

Continue ReadingTed Rall’s Site Among Those Monitored by Cops Prior to 2004 RNC

On Trade Secrets, a resource blog for illustrators, Benjamen Purvis talks about his production process, what he looks for in illustrators and how he finds and chooses them. "I know they can be expensive to produce and distribute, but really, the illustrator's work is more likely going to jump out at me when I look at their post card on my wall than it would in an all-text email with a hyperlink," he says.

Continue ReadingLas Vegas Weekly Art Director Talks Shop

In a press release issued this afternoon, Village Voice Media says it is selling its Emeryville-based paper to an investment group led by current editor Stephen Buel, AAN veteran Hal Brody, and Express co-founder Kelly Vance. Monterey County Weekly founder and CEO Bradley Zeve is also one of the investors. Brody, who owned Pitch Weekly in Kansas City until he sold it to New Times in 1999, will take over as publisher. The Express, which was founded in 1978, has been owned by New Times/VVM since 2001. "It's great that Hal and Steve will be taking over the Express," VVM chief executive officer Jim Larkin says. "They are amazingly talented people who will devote themselves to continuing the paper's excellence." Editing the Express "is the best job I've ever had," Buel says. "It will be an honor to build upon the legacies left by the founders and Village Voice Media."

Continue ReadingGroup of Alt-Weekly Vets to Buy East Bay Express