In a story previewing 2010, NOW sized up city councillor Adam Giambrone's chances of becoming mayor. "He's young. He's bright. He's gay," the story read. "And he looks better than any of his challengers so far." But there was one problem, Giambrone says. "I'm not, in fact, gay," he wrote on Facebook. "Sarah, my partner, has taken the news in stride and with good humour and I'm sure I'll never hear the end of it from the LGBTQ people in my life." NOW has acknowledged the mistake and changed the phrasing to "gay-positive."

Continue ReadingWhoops! NOW Magazine Mistakenly IDs Toronto Pol as Gay

Greg Harman's three-part Nukes of Hazard series has made On Earth magazine's "Best Environmental Journalism of 2009" list, along with several books, a series from the New York Times and pieces from prominent national magazines like The New Yorker, Mother Jones and Vanity Fair. "Harman shows readers what's at stake in the current industry campaign to create a 'nuclear renaissance' in Texas," Osha Gray Davidson writes. "Nukes of Hazard is exactly what alternative weeklies are supposed to provide but frequently don't: a powerfully written, in-depth piece about an issue that is most important to readers -- now that they've found out about it." On Earth is published by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Continue ReadingSan Antonio Current Series Makes ‘Best Environmental Journalism’ List

The San Francisco Bay Guardian reports that it was granted its motion to intercept the income of the SF Weekly in a court hearing last week. The Guardian says it will seize the rent that the SF Weekly's subtenant pays to the paper. This comes on the heels of the Guardian's recent seizure and auction of two vehicles owned by the Weekly, and it is all part of the Guardian's attempt to collect the multi-million-dollar judgment it was awarded in the predatory pricing trial against the Weekly and its parent company New Times, now known as Village Voice Media. VVM maintains that it won't owe the Guardian any money until its appeals are completed.

Continue ReadingBay Guardian Continues its Seizure of SF Weekly’s Assets

Jason Sheehan's Cooking Dirty has been named one of TIME's Top 10 Nonfiction Books of 2009. "It's a paradox of the post-Bourdain era: chef memoirs are trendy, but none of the chefs writing them have the freakish combination of cooking and writing talent that made Anthony Bourdain a star," Lev Grossman writes. "But Jason Sheehan comes damn close, and he gives the genre his own distinctive seasoning." Sheehan recently made the move from Westword to the Seattle Weekly.

Continue ReadingAlt-Weekly Food Writer’s Book Makes TIME’s Year-End Top 10 List

Longworth, who is the co-founder of Cinematical.com and former editor SpoutBlog, will replace Scott Foundas, who last month announced he was leaving the Weekly to become the associate program director of The Film Society of Lincoln Center. Longworth will begin her tenure at the Weekly on Jan. 18. In other Weekly news, the paper has hired a new staff reporter: Gene Maddaus, formerly of the Daily Breeze.

Continue ReadingL.A. Weekly Hires Karina Longworth as New Film Editor

The Pinellas County Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union recently gave the Irene Miller Vigilance in Journalism award to Wayne Garcia for his work as political editor at Creative Loafing (Tampa). The chapter's board members unanimously chose Garcia, who left CL to teach at the University of Florida's College of Journalism and Communications this summer, for his "clear objective reporting of the actions of government," chapter president Thom Foley says. "As soon as the name was mentioned, it was like a ripple of 'Oh, that's perfect!' It was an instantaneous unanimous decision."

Continue ReadingEx-Political Editor Gets Local ACLU Award for Work at Creative Loafing

"I wore a suit at my wedding, and between 1993 and 1994 I wore a suit at work," Colorado Springs Independent publisher John Weiss says in a Colorado Springs Business Journal piece about -- you guessed it -- suits. "I was trying to fit in and be legitimate ... But then I realized that the whole point of being the publisher of an alternative weekly was that you didn't have to wear a suit."

Continue ReadingA Perk of Publishing an Alt-Weekly: No Suit Required