Most national polls indicate that the 2004 presidential race is extremely close. Some have the Bush/Cheney ticket ahead. Others put the Kerry/Edwards team on top. Some suggest it is a dead heat. But among the nation's media planners and buyers, there is no question which candidate leads. By a margin of nearly two-to-one, media executives would like to see John Kerry elected president versus George W. Bush, according to results of a survey of the MediaPost Advisory Panel conducted online this week by InsightExpress.
Editor John Mecklin takes aim at a "smelly BS-offensive emanating" from the San Francisco Bay Guardian, which, he says, contains "huge doses of distortion, some outright falsehood, and very little truth." Mecklin says the "capper" to this offensive is the predatory-pricing lawsuit that Bay Guardian filed last week against SF Weekly and its sister publication, East Bay Express. The Bay Guardian has long tried "to convince San Francisco of the dangerous evil that a New Times-owned SF Weekly represents," writes Mecklin. "Over that time, SF Weekly has sailed ahead, and the Bay Guardian has foundered." (Second item on linked page.) Also addressed: SF Weekly's response to Puni-comic controversy. (Main item on linked page.)
Utne magazine has announced the nominees for its 2004 Independent Press Awards, and Association of Alternative Newsweeklies member papers dominate the "Local/Regional Coverage" category. Austin Chronicle, Chicago Reader, The Stranger, The Texas Observer and Westword all received nominations, as did Los Angeles CityBeat, an upstart alt-weekly that's only been publishing for 16 months. Nominees were chosen from among 2,000 alternative media sources. According to the Utne Web site, selection depended partly upon which publications were "most apt to go missing from the Utne library."
When Philadelphia City Paper publisher Paul Curci conducted a national search for a new editor, he spoke to "no less than three dozen candidates," according to his open letter in the paper's latest issue. With input from his staff, he handpicked Philly native Duane Swierczynski, who worked at Philadelphia magazine and Men's Health before moving on to New York and an associate editor position at Details. Curci says that Swierczynski "made good in Philly, elevated his game in New York and chose to return to the city he loves to do what he does best -- lead young writers to excellence."
The recent acknowledgments of circulation inflation by three prominent newspaper companies have prompted at least a half-dozen other chains to install safeguards intended to bolster confidence in their circulation figures. The new policies by the chains - including Knight Ridder, the McClatchy Company newspapers and E. W. Scripps - have all been put in place in advance of Nov. 1. That is the date when the Audit Bureau of Circulations, which acts as both an industrywide clearinghouse and umpire, is scheduled to release March-to-September circulation figures for about 1,000 daily papers.
Signaling some doubts about the U.S. marketplace. WPP Group Tuesday reported relatively weak results for the third quarter of 2004. Revenues rose only 3.7 percent due to $1.962 billion due to weakness in the U.S. dollar, as well as weaker than expected performance in its advertising and media investment management units. WPP is the parent of Mindshare and Mediaedge:cia, and has agreed to acquire Grey Global and its MediaCom unit in a deal expected to close early next year.
Nader-supporting alt-weekly readers living in 10 swing states will see full-page ads next week urging them to vote Kerry in 2004. The ads promote a statement by more than 70 former Nader supporters -- including Noam Chomsky, Ben Cohen and Susan Sarandon -- who endorse voting for Kerry in states where he's running neck and neck with Bush. Colorado Springs Independent publisher John Weiss, who organized the campaign, says, "Our goal is to reach voters who have been almost entirely neglected in this campaign: swing voters on the left."
Willamette Week co-sponsored Candidates Gone Wild!, an event that allowed candidates for Portland City Council, mayor and the 1st Congressional District to set aside substance for shtick. The politicians participated in a talent show, sat through satirical short films and weathered a Q&A session filled with hard-hitting questions that Oregonian news writer Douglas Perry contends, "would make Bob Schieffer pass out." That aside, Perry judges the event an "aggressively issues-free evening" attended by an audience that "views the popular 'Girls Gone Wild' videos as a wholesome tradition."
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