Gregory Flannery says it took about 30 seconds for him to be arrested in a March 20 peace march in Cincinnati. "That's how long my feet were embedded on a Fifth Street crosswalk before a police officer ordered me to move. I declined, and he charged me with obstructing official business," he writes. Flannery says his five hours in the slammer were worth it, even though, "Handcuffs hurt the wrists and the shoulders. Jail is boring."

Continue ReadingCityBeat News Editor Arrested

Akron Beacon Journal Columnist David Giffel declines the title of "worst columnist" because he claims an archenemy, Dave "Coondog" O'Karma, stuffed the ballot box. "When I asked Scene editor Pete Kotz how many votes I'd received, he admitted, `We never counted the votes.''' Giffel writes. The winner was selected on the basis of the staff's favorite nominating letter, which termed Giffel's writing "unoriginal, unimaginative and shallow."

Continue ReadingOhio Columnist Declines Scene’s “Worst Columnist” Award

Chris Lydgate of Willamette Week, Laura Laughlin of Phoenix New Times and David Martin of Cleveland Scene win national Unity Awards in Media, competing against media powerhouses like TIME Magazine and the Wall Street Journal. Unity Awards in Media, administered by Lincoln University in Missouri, recognize "accurate exposure of issues affecting minorities and disabled persons."

Continue ReadingAAN Writers Win National Unity Awards

Former Village Voice Media President Art Howe is now CEO of a holding company formed by the Mead family of Erie, Pa., which owns the daily Erie Times-News, to pursue purchases of alternative newsweeklies. Cleveland Free Times is the first investment the company has made in an alt-weekly. The management team headed by former Free Times Publisher Matt Fabyan "has been made significant partners," Howe said.

Continue ReadingPennsylvania Newspaper Family Invests in Cleveland Free Times

Southland Publishing's David Comden announces that his company successfully bid for the New Times LA assets that were put up for sale in the wake of the consent decree signed by New Times after a Department. of Justice investigation of the paper's closure. According to Comden, Southland, which owns AAN members Pasadena Weekly and Ventura County Reporter as well as applying paper San Diego CityBeat, "plans to open two (Los Angeles) newsweeklies, CityBeat LA and ValleyBeat, by summer."

Continue ReadingSouthland to Debut Two LA Weeklies This Summer

The city of Dayton, Ohio has a new paper this week: AAN member Impact Weekly changed its name to Dayton City Paper and has "abandon(ed) the bully pulpit," Publisher Kerry Farley tells the Dayton Daily News. According to Farley, Dayton wasn't receptive to the traditional format of an alternative weekly, so in a bid to reach new readers he plans to change the left-leaning paper into a forum for local opinion that spans the ideological spectrum.

Continue ReadingImpact Weekly to Change Name, Editorial Focus

A group of investors, including former Cleveland Free Times Publisher Matt Fabyan, Editor in Chief David Eden and former Village Voice Media President Art Howe, has purchased the assets of Cleveland Free Times from VVM and plans to resume publishing in early May. Most of the former staff has been offered jobs and many plan to return, Fabyan says in a news release. Free Times was shuttered as part of a deal between VVM and New Times that closed papers in Los Angeles and Cleveland, ending head-to-head competition between the two chains.

Continue ReadingCleveland Free Times to Publish Again