Five of those dismissed yesterday were senior arts editors, including Christgau, who had been a music critic for the paper on and off since 1969. The other three employees were design staff, including Art Director Minh Uong. In a statement, Village Voice Media describes the layoffs as an effort "to reconfigure the editorial department to place an emphasis on writers as opposed to editors." David Blum, who was named the editor of the Voice three weeks ago, tells The New York Times, "It wouldn't have been appropriate for me to weigh in on these decisions before I even took over the job." Blum's first day is September 12.

Continue ReadingThe Village Voice Lays Off Eight, Including Robert Christgau

The sale of IE Weekly was announced yesterday; the 21-week-old California publication serves a large market in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. Publisher Jeremy Zachary, editor Stacy Davies and managing editor Rich Kane -- all former employees of OC Weekly -- will continue in their positions. "In today's merger climate it makes sense that we join the Southland Publishing family, allowing us to better serve our advertisers locally, regionally and nationally," Zachary says.

Continue ReadingSouthland Publishing Buys Inland Empire Weekly

Karla Starr, who compiles the listings of book-related events for Willamette Week, got a bigger reaction than she expected to an item in the August 23 issue. Starr wrote:

Are you a fatty? Want to be in a book? Waddle over to a computer, grab your typing stick (those sausage fingers hit too many keys at once, don't they?), go to stacybias.net, and fill out the contact form for your chance to contribute to Bias' FatGirl Speaks, a short-fiction anthology inspired by her event of the same name.
According to a note in the Aug. 30 issue, "WW's email inboxes, voicemail and front desk were inundated by responses." The Letters to the Editor section includes six messages from angry readers, one from Bias, and an apology from Starr. "After experiencing firsthand the power of reading so many stories, my appreciation and respect for Stacy Bias' work and upcoming book has grown tremendously," Starr says.

Continue ReadingWeight Jokes in Willamette Week Create Uproar

In the last issue of his alt-weekly's 25th year, Louis Black offers up "Ten Ways of Looking at an Austin Chronicle," one of which is as a "non-award-winning weekly." Black says that the Austin Chronicle staff usually doesn't have time to submit entries in the AltWeekly Awards, and even when they do, they "rarely win." (The Chronicle has won a total of five awards, including a 2006 first-place award for Drugs Reporting.) "I argue that this is because the awards have evolved to the point where they honor the weeklies that are the most like the glossy magazines, with very long, in-depth stories beating out most of the others," Black writes. "More often than not, many papers engage in the type of 'gotcha! journalism' in which a City Council member is exposed to be self-serving, using public money to enrich him or herself, and/or to be found with an underage boy or girl or animal of any age."

Continue ReadingLouis Black: AltWeekly Awards Honor Papers Most Like Glossy Mags