The new CEO of Village Voice Media announced Tuesday that Michael Cohen has been named publisher of the chain's flagship paper. In an e-mail message to Village Voice staffers, Larkin said that Cohen resigned his current position as publisher of Miami New Times and will take the helm at the Voice on Monday Jan. 30. Cohen, who has been in the alternative-weekly publishing business for 22 years, began his career in ad sales at the Baltimore City Paper in 1983 and moved to New York five years later to help launch the New York Press as its ad director. He returned to New York in 2000 to serve briefly as publisher of the Press; he also served stints as publisher of AAN member papers Fairfield County Weekly and Philadelphia Weekly. In a separate e-mail to the Voice staff, Judy Miszner announced that Tuesday was her last day as the paper's publisher. "I thank all of you for making these the 7 best years of my career," she wrote.

Continue ReadingJim Larkin Names New Publisher at Village Voice

Geoff Kelly has returned to his former job as editor of Artvoice, according to representatives of the Buffalo, NY-based alt-weekly. Kelly recently returned from the Middle East after serving for two years as senior media officer for the Qatar Foundation. Before that he served briefly as the editor of the now defunct Pulp, an arts and entertainment paper in Pittsburgh. Artvoice also announced that Lauren Newkirk Maynard has left her position as managing editor and associate music editor Mark Norris has been promoted to replace her.

Continue ReadingFormer Editor Returns to Artvoice

Michael Tisserand, who wrote the "Submerged" series about the evacuee experience in post-Katrina New Orleans, argues for a National Mardi Gras in the Jan. 24 issue of Gambit Weekly. "It's time to honor the dead and celebrate the living," Tisserand writes. The article is available to AAN member newspapers for reprint at no charge.

Continue ReadingTisserand’s Latest Essay Available for Free to AAN Members

According to Publisher/Editor Will Swaim, News and Investigations Editor Nick Schou will pen a biography of Gary Webb, the late investigative journalist, for Nation Books. Webb is best known for his San Jose Mercury News "Dark Alliance" series, which explored links between the CIA, Nicaraguan contras, and crack cocaine. Webb worked briefly at the Sacramento News and Review before his suicide in 2004. Schou has reported on the controversy over the "Dark Alliance" series in several articles for OC Weekly.

Continue ReadingOC Weekly Writer Signs Book Deal

In an interview with PR Week, Slate media critic Jack Shafer, who is also the former editor of both Washington City Paper and SF Weekly, names the Boston Phoenix's Mark Jurkowitz and Washington City Paper's Erik Wemple as two of the best media critics in the country. (He also cites former alt-weekly reporters Dan Kennedy and Tom Scocca.) Shafer says that when he edited the City Paper, he considered each issue of the paper an implicit "volume of media criticism," because of CP's emphasis on stories that its mainstream competition ignored.

Continue ReadingJack Shafer Tips Hat to Media Critics at AAN Member Papers

Rall, whose award-winning cartoons appear in many AAN papers, including the Village Voice and Washington City Paper, has reached another milestone: becoming a clue in the New York Times crossword puzzle. As noted by Editor & Publisher, the Jan. 20 puzzle featured the clue "editorial cartoonist Rall." On his blog, Rall said, "That really is kind of amazing to this boy from the Ohio burbs. On the other hand, it is a pretty damned hard puzzle."

Continue ReadingCartoonist Ted Rall Now a Crossword Clue