"In 1974, the first WW rolled off the presses into a town in transition, between listless backwater and budding progressive mecca," Mark Zusman and Ethan Smith write in an intro to a special commemorative issue that features nearly 20 stories on the paper's -- and Portland's -- journey since then. As part of the paper's anniversary celebration, it has also curated an art show devoted to trashing its covers.

Continue ReadingWillamette Week Celebrates 35th Anniversary

The Dallas Bar Association honors the best legal news reporting in the Dallas-Fort Worth area with its annual Stephen Philbin Awards; this year the Dallas Observer's Jim Schutze and Robert Wilonsky took home an award in the new category of Electronic Media News/Feature Article for their live-blogging of a City Hall corruption trial, which the association says "gave readers a play-by-play account of each day's courtroom activities."

Continue ReadingDallas Observer’s Live-Blogging Wins Local Bar Association Award

"What began as an upstart, 2,000-circulation bimonthly publication with roots in historic preservation has grown into the largest weekly in Oklahoma," editor Rob Collins writes. "To celebrate its first three decades, Gazette contacted former editors, writers and contributors to share their memories and unique experiences." Collins says publisher Bill Bleakley founded the paper as a "journal of contributions to Oklahoma's quality of life." MORE: Joe Wertz looks at the paper's future.

Continue ReadingOklahoma Gazette Celebrates 30th Birthday

The Association of Food Journalists last week named the winners of its 2009 Awards Competition at a banquet in New Orleans. Seattle Weekly's Jonathan Kauffman won first place for Best Newspaper Restaurant Criticism and Creative Loafing (Atlanta)'s Besha Rodell took home first for Best Newspaper Food Feature. (Riverfront Times' Kristen Hinman took third in that category.) Kauffman's victory marks the fourth year in a row that a Village Voice Media paper has won the Best Newspaper Restaurant Criticism category.

Continue ReadingOnce Again, Alt-Weeklies Fare Well in Food Journalists’ Awards

The Ohio Society of Professional Journalists Awards have announced the winners of its 2009 awards contest. The Cleveland Scene won seven total awards, finishing first for Arts Profile, Media Criticsm, Newsmaker Profile, Public Service Journalism and Rock and Roll Feature Reporting. The Cleveland Free Times, which was merged with the Scene in July 2008, took home two awards, including a first-place win for Consumer Reporting, and The Other Paper of Columbus won five awards.

Continue ReadingOhio Alt-Weeklies Take Home 14 State Press Awards

The Northern California Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists announced the winners of its 2009 Excellence in Journalism Awards last week, and three alt-weeklies took home honors. The SF Weekly's Joe Eskenazi won the Explanatory Journalism (print, non-daily) award for "Service with a Snarl," a piece that "examines, with clarity and humor, the laws around the use of service animals in San Francisco." Kathleen Richards of the East Bay Express won the Investigative Journalism (print, non-daily) award for "Yelp and the Business of Extortion 2.0," which the judges say is "a strong example of consumer-affairs reporting." And the staff of the North Coast Journal won the Student Special Project award for "Meltdown," a project the paper undertook with students from Humboldt State University's Investigative Reporting Class.

Continue ReadingThree AAN Members Win Northern California SPJ Awards

Las Vegas CityLife, Las Vegas Weekly and the Reno News & Review took home a total of 74 awards at the annual Better Newspaper Contest put on by the Nevada Press Association. CityLife won 34 awards, with 16 first-place finishes; the News & Review won 28 awards, including 11 firsts; and the Weekly won 12 awards, four of which were first-place.

Continue ReadingNevada Alt-Weeklies Win Big in State Press Contest