Peter Cox, co-founder of the statewide alternative weekly, died last week from esophageal cancer, the Portland Press Herald reports. Cox had written that he and co-founder John Cole started Maine Times in 1968 because, "We wanted to cover issues rather than events and we believed in the community of Maine.” According to the Press Herald, "In its early years especially, the alternative weekly wrote about issues the traditional press had long neglected." Cox sold the paper in 1985, but later returned for a short stint as editor and also served as a columnist for several years. His memoir, Journalism Matters, will be published in December.

Continue ReadingMaine Times Co-Founder Dies

Steve Bailey of the Boston Globe looks at the impending battle between Boston Phoenix and Boston's Weekly Dig. He writes that "others have tried to take on [Phoenix publisher Stephen] Mindich and failed," and that the owners of Boston and Philadelphia magazines "have bought the five-year-old Weekly Dig with plans to pour in the resources and turn up the heat on the Phoenix." Bailey paints a picture of Old Guard vs. Youth Movement, of Champion vs. Challenger, before surmising, "More newspapers are better than fewer newspapers."

Continue ReadingBoston’s Phoenix and Weekly Dig Set to Tangle

Sacramento News & Review president and CEO Jeff von Kaenel was sick of the Sacramento Bee offering advertisers huge discounts in Ticket, the daily's arts and entertainment weekly insert, reports Sacramento Business Journal. So he sent out 250 letters to Bee advertisers that weren't getting discounts -- that is, Bee advertisers that hadn't been poached away from the News & Review -- citing the cheaper rates and asking, "Are you paying this?" Von Kaenel tells SBJ that he sees the discounts as the Bee's attempt to "take us out," and that the daily is "engaging in practices I believe are suspect."

Continue ReadingNews & Review Launches Counterattack on the Sacramento Bee

Last weekend, the Hoosier Environmental Council presented NUVO a Green Business Award in recognition of its eco-friendly practices. The Indianapolis alt-weekly uses newsprint with 80 percent recycled content and takes energy-saving measures, such as having lights and computers on sleep mode. In an online staff report, NUVO suggests that conservation-minded readers "take the time to ask your favorite local newspaper to consider a higher-recycled content."

Continue ReadingNUVO Receives Environmental Award

The Religion Newswriters Association has awarded news and investigative reporter Gustavo Arellano a Lilly Scholarship for his reportage on the child-abuse scandal in the Catholic Diocese of Orange County, Calif. According to an OC Weekly press release, he is one of just seven winners for 2004. The non-profit and nonpartisan association awards the scholarships to allow writers to pursue religious studies.

Continue ReadingOC Weekly Reporter Awarded Prestigious Scholarship

The Cincinnati alt-weekly is celebrating its 10-year anniversary this week and marks the occasion with a special section that reflects upon some of the paper's noteworthy journalistic achievements -- from saving the life of an innocent man on Death Row to shining a light on a local daily's forfeiture of editorial control to the Chiquita banana company. "Fawning over ourselves with an anniversary issue makes me uncomfortable," co-publisher and editor John Fox writes. "But 10 years of being the liberal voice in a conservative town is something to celebrate."

Continue ReadingCincinnati CityBeat Hits Double-Digits

Leading national retailers - worried about the size of their coming holiday haul - are intensifying efforts to find the right advertising to entice jaded shoppers into opening their wallets and purses before Dec. 25.

The goal of the campaigns, from retailers like Best Buy, Cartier and Target, is to stand out from the usual seasonal spiels by forging more emotional bonds with consumers. That is a response to the trend of shoppers showing increasing resistance to rational price-and-item pitches.

The need for retailers to use nontraditional approaches to differentiate themselves from the competition is becoming more urgent as analysts offer forecasts for revenue growth that are more ho-hum than ho-ho-ho.

Continue ReadingMarketers Plan Holiday Ad Blitz

Bradford W. Ketchum Jr., last editor of the defunct Maine Times magazine, is suing owner Christopher Hutchins for severance pay, reports Bangor Daily News. Maine Times was originally a weekly newspaper and was a member of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, hosting the association's 1987 convention. In mid-2002, Hutchins closed the paper and revamped it as a monthly magazine, hiring Ketchum as editor at a yearly salary of $120,000. According to Bangor Daily News, Ketchum asked for and received a letter that stated he would receive one year's severance pay if his employment were terminated. In January 2004, all Maine Times staffers abruptly lost their jobs when Hutchins told them that publication would cease immediately.

Continue ReadingFormer Maine Times Owner Sued for Severance Pay

Microsoft Corp.'s MSN and American Express on Monday launched a jointly created alternative music hub targeting young professionals. Dubbed "In the Mix," the content on the co-branded alternative music destination is designed to attract professionals between the ages of 25 and 35--the target demographic for the American Express Blue card.

Continue ReadingMSN/AmEx Debut Online Music Hub