After Fast Forward Weekly ran a story last week about vendors who are frustrated with how the Calgary Farmers' Market is run, about 200 copies of the paper distributed at the market disappeared. Several people who work at the market tell Fast Forward the papers were taken into an upstairs office. "By partaking in that kind of activity and pulling a paper off a shelf, it's just kind of shining more light on the issue that was talked about in the article in the first place," one vendor says. "It's pretty embarrassing, and not exactly what a farmers' market should be about." Market officials say they don't "have a clue" about the missing papers.

Continue ReadingAfter Tough Story, Alt-Weekly Disappears from Farmers Market

Faithful AAN.org readers may recall that on April Fool's Day, City Paper reworked its website to ape HuffPo's look. The parody -- The Huffington City Paper -- even received kudos from HuffPo itself. Now -- a day after the publication of a well-read City Paper column criticizing HuffPo -- the aggregator is asking the alt-weekly to remove the lightly trafficked page from its archives, in part because it contains a link to HuffPo. "Never thought I'd be scolded by a Huffington Post official for linking," writes editor Erik Wemple. "But I was!"

Continue ReadingHuffington Post to Washington City Paper: Take Down Parody Page

Miriam Nisbet, who now heads the information society division of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization in Paris, has been chosen to direct the Archives' new Office of Government Information Services. The appointment is being hailed by open government advocates. Nisbet "has dedicated her entire professional life to working for open access to government records," Sunshine in Government Initiative (SGI) coordinator Rick Blum says. "This is a promising start for those who want the FOIA to work better." MORE: Read SGI's statement on the appointment.

Continue ReadingNational Archives Appoints First FOIA Ombudsman

Eastbay Express Publishing LP, an entity controlled by former Express owner Village Voice Media, has filed suit against two of the alt-weekly's current owners, Hal Brody and Stephen Buel, claiming they owe $500,000 under the terms of the 2007 deal in which the paper was sold. Brody admits they owe the money but says their debt is exceeded by the damage they suffered as a result of VVM's violation of a non-compete clause included in the original agreement. "The SF Weekly [also owned by VVM] is not supposed to solicit our advertisers in Alameda and Contra Costa, and they've been doing it, over and over," Brody tells the San Francisco Bay Guardian. "We have massive claims against them for violating those terms." But VVM's attorney disagrees: "(VVM) is not aware that it has violated the terms of any its agreements with the current publisher of the East Bay Express or with Mr. Brody or Mr. Buel," Randall S. Farrimond says. "We believe that any judge or jury who reviews the facts of this matter will conclude that Mr. Brody and Mr. Buel owe us the amounts stated in our complaint." More from the Express.

Continue ReadingVVM Sues Owners of East Bay Express

The KIOLI Flea Market and Farmers Market, an extension of the Press' KIOLI (Keep It On Long Island) shop local campaign, kicked off last weekend on a Long Island college campus, the Daily News reports. The market, which features more than 200 vendors, will run every Saturday and Sunday this summer. Press publisher Jed Morey says he hopes the market will help bring a sense of community to shoppers. "The mall sort of took the soul out of the flea market, so I think this is us getting a little bit of our groove back," he says. "The malling of America is hopefully coming to a little bit of a close, and we will get back to promoting local business."

Continue ReadingLong Island Press’ Shop Local Campaign Spins Off a Local Market

Four years ago, Alex Brown and Evan George started writing the "Hot Knives" column in AAN member LA Alternative Press (later known simply as LA Alternative). The paper went web-only in 2006 shortly before disappearing altogether, but the duo continued the column, and eventually expanded to catering after readers approached them to do a wedding. George tells the Los Angeles Times they love cooking for fans. "People who are like, 'Oh yeah, I've been up late at night at my computer and I've been hungry and I've totally wanted to hang out in that website, and now I can hire those guys to chill with me and drink beer and make me my wedding feast,'" he says.

Continue ReadingAlt-Weekly Food Column Expands to Include a Catering Business

The AIM Group/Classified Intelligence estimates the online classifieds network will generate $100 million in revenue this year, an increase of more than 23 percent from Craigslist's estimated revenue of $81 million in 2008. "This is a down market for just about everyone else but Craigslist," AIM Group editorial director Jim Townsend says. To come up with what it calls a conservative projection, the firm counted the number of paid ads on the site for a month and extrapolated an annual figure.

Continue ReadingReport: Craigslist’s 2009 Revenue Will Top $100 Million

In a Q&A with The Future Buzz, Village Voice Media social media strategist John Boitnott talks about how VVM is merging traditional journalism work with social media work. "What we are realizing at [VVM] is that one's effectiveness as a journalist now may depend to some degree on your social media prowess," he says. "It's absolutely a revolutionary concept -- and one that many old schoolers may scoff at or ignore."

Continue ReadingVVM Strategist Talks Social Media, Journalism