Read more about the article The Heroic Media Attorney: An Endangered Species

Award-winning investigative reporter Willy Stern drops his usual expletive-laced style in favor of a cap and gown in this 8,500-word essay on the role of lawyers in investigative journalism. Stern concludes that corporate ownership of the media has resulted in timid editors, tepid reporting and lawyers who play it safe at all cost. "In the eyes of many investigative reporters, these changes have weakened the historic, watchdog role of the press in American society, and present a new and substantive threat to the press freedoms embedded in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution," Stern writes in an essay originally intended for inclusion in an academic collection.

Continue ReadingThe Heroic Media Attorney: An Endangered Species

The morning after he learned that New Times Los Angeles was closing, Rick Barrs, now editor of Phoenix New Times, awakened from an "alcoholic haze" to the suggestion from The New York Times' David Carr that the closing might violate federal antitrust laws. Barrs thought the question bizarre. "It seemed unlikely that a Department of Justice that had allowed daily newspapers to eliminate smaller competitors for generations (take the Arizona Republic swallowing up the Phoenix Gazette, and the massive Gannett company buying up the whole shebang) would bother with two alternative media gnats. Especially John Ashcroft's pro-business Justice Department," Barrs writes.

Continue ReadingAntitrust Investigation Stunned Editor

A state appeals court has sided with City Pages (Twin Cities) in its attempt to force the state and Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Minnesota to reveal how much they paid a high-powered law firm for its work on the state's lawsuit against the tobacco industry. "We saw the lawsuit as a golden opportunity to remind our elected officials and their powerful friends that to be healthy, a democracy must be watched over by a free, independent, and vigorous press," the paper says in an unsigned editorial.

Continue ReadingCity Pages Wins Another Round in Court

The first issue of Pulse, "a new weekly magazine supplement targeting younger, active, single servicemembers," is scheduled to launch March 5. Stars and Stripes, the Pentagon-authorized bastion of daily military news, says Pulse won't "be talking down" to its audience, unlike other dailies' youth pubs. "The staff working on this is under 30. The editor is under 30. We're going to try to tap our totally unique market to make this a magazine they want to read," Editor Danielle L. Kiracofe says.

Continue ReadingStars and Stripes To Debut “Alternative” Weekly (Word document)

Urban Dialect in Cleveland and Los Angeles Alternative Press in California are filling the holes left by the closure of New Times Los Angeles and Cleveland Free Times. The two young publishers – Daniel Gray-Kontar in Cleveland and Martin Albornoz in L.A. – see a place for a new generation's "alternative" alternative weeklies.

Continue ReadingNew Voices in Cleveland, L.A.

"It's absurd to ascribe a monolithic set of attitudes and beliefs to all 116 papers that are members of our group," AAN Executive Director Richard Karpel writes in the letters section of Jim Romenesko's Web site. To make his point, Karpel contrasts the Chicago Reader's "cerebral, mostly apolitical" journalism with the "unabashedly liberal" sledgehammer approach of the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

Continue ReadingAAN Exec: Alt-Weeklies Rarely Speak With One Voice

Still on the alternative weekly beat, Tim Rutten of the Los Angeles Times critiques former mayor Richard Riordan's new weekly prototype and finds the LA Examiner aimed at the people who elected him -- affluent, educated and mostly white. Rutten, who reported on the antitrust investigation of Village Voice Media and New Times, takes a last slap at the two chains for "a sad and venal chapter in an otherwise vigorous -- often courageous -- history" of the alternative press in Los Angeles.

Continue ReadingRiordan’s Weekly Prototype Aims at Affluent

Tom Finkel, editor of City Pages (Twin Cities) until mid-2002, returns to his hometown of St. Louis and to New Times as the new editor of Riverfront Times. He replaces Jim Nesbitt. Before taking the position to Minneapolis, Finkel was managing editor of Miami New Times. "I'm thrilled to be able to move back to my hometown and be a part of the Riverfront Times," Finkel says. He starts March 3.

Continue ReadingFinkel Heading to St. Louis

John Powers calls Tim Rutten's coverage of the federal antitrust investigation of Village Voice Media and New Times a host of bad words, including "maladroit," "inflammatory," and "bumbling." He is delighted that Rutten was scooped on what he had considered his own story by David Carr of The New York Times. Then, in the unkindest cut of all, Powers concludes, "I actually found myself feeling sorry for the poor bastard."

Continue ReadingLA Weekly Blasts LA Times’ Antitrust Coverage

Two entrepreneurs are printing the first issue of The City Voice today, a weekly aimed at the city of Albany, N.Y., although they plan to distribute it in surrounding towns and even send 500 copies to Manhattan. "Whether there's room for this particular paper depends on what they do and how well they do it," says Stephen Leon, editor and publisher of AAN-member Metroland.

Continue ReadingNew Weekly Launching in Albany