Boston Phoenix staff writer David Bernstein was named Journalist of the Year by the New England Press Association. He also brought home two additional first-place awards for the Phoenix -- in the Investigative Reporting and Serious Columnist categories. "Mr. Bernstein's in-depth articles are compelling and hyper-relevant, challenging myths and assumptions with sharp, clear reporting and a highly readable writing style," the judges write. "Very impressive!" All in all, the Phoenix won another nine awards, including additional first-place wins for Convergence and Reporting on Religious Issues. Worcester Magazine took home six awards, including first-place finishes in the Personality Photo, Social Issues Feature Story and Local Ad: Color categories. Boston's Weekly Dig won four awards, finishing first in Educational Reporting, Infographics and Transportation/Commuter Reporting. The Portland Phoenix also won four awards, and placed first in the General News Story category.

Continue ReadingFour AAN Members Win Scores of Regional Press Awards

In the North Carolina Press Association's annual contest, the Independent Weekly won a total of nine awards and Mountain Xpress took home three. The Indy finished first in three categories: criticism (which it swept), investigative reporting and news coverage. The Xpress finished first in the Special Section category. In addition, the Indy collected five awards, including one first-place win, in the the North Carolina Press Photographers Association's annual contest.

Continue ReadingN.C. Alt-Weeklies Win Handful of State Press Awards

Ling Ma, a 2008 graduate of the Academy for Alternative Journalism, wrote this week's Chicago Reader cover story about the city's Museum of Holography and a controversial bank loan that may spell the museum's demise. The yearly academy trains young journalists in long-form feature writing with the aim of recruiting them into the alternative press. MORE: Read Ma's blog about reporting the story here.

Continue ReadingAAN Diversity-Program Alum Pens Cover Story

The Gazette won one of nine 2008 Sequoyah Awards in this year's Oklahoma Press Association Better Newspaper Contest. The Sequoyah Award, the highest honor in the contest, is based on total points accumulated in all events. The alt-weekly received first place awards in News Content, Layout & Design, Advertising, Sales Promotion, In-Depth Enterprise, Personal Columns, Feature Writing and Photography. It placed second in Editorial Comment; third in Community Leadership; and fourth in News Writing. "A quality alternative weekly," one judge commented. "Great photography. Clever headlines ... wish our paper could attract all those plastic surgeon ads."

Continue ReadingOklahoma Gazette Wins Top Honors in State Press Association Awards

This week, the Albany alt-weekly begins a yearlong celebration of its 30th birthday, but as the Albany Times-Union notes, it is actually the paper's 31st, since it launched in mid-1978. Editor and publisher Stephen Leon says he wanted to peg the celebration to 1979, which was when Metroland switched from a "disco monthly" to a weekly. "The legend was I started the magazine to meet girls," founder Peter Iselin says. "And that was pretty much the case. What can I say? I was 23 years old." The Times-Union reports that Iselin got serious after the paper was denied AAN membership in 1986. He hired Leon to help build the paper's journalistic credibility, and Metroland was admitted to AAN the following year.

Continue ReadingMetroland Celebrates 30th — or 31st? — Birthday

Publisher Richard Meeker reports that 3,902 people made 8,419 donations totaling $806,581.81 to WW's 2008 Give!Guide, an annual program that supports local nonprofits and encourages the philanthropic impulse among readers 35 and under. When combined with the $4,000 in prizes from WW and $16,000 in prize money from a local research and consulting firm, the total raised this year for 55 Portland-area nonprofits was $826,581.81. Meeker says that's a 60 percent increase over last year and almost 40 times what the Give!Guide raised when it debuted four years ago.

Continue ReadingWillamette Week Raises Nearly $850K for Local Nonprofits

Bradley Campbell's story examining the Evangelical Lutheran Church's complex relationship with gays and lesbians seeking to lead congregations has been nominated in the Outstanding Newspaper Article category in the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation's (GLAAD) 20th annual media awards. The 2007 Academy for Alternative Journalism alum's piece was nominated alongside work done in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Hartford Courant and Nashua, N.H., Telegraph. Winners will be announced in March.

Continue ReadingCity Pages Story Up for GLAAD Media Award