San Francisco Bay Guardian asks the question after reading L.A. Times coverage of the New Times-Village Voice antitrust investigation and speaking with former LA Weekly political columnist Marc Haefele. Haefele claims "the LA Weekly to a large extent is being edited under New York oversight" and now reports on "new dresses and rock bands" instead of "things like Governor Gray Davis and City Hall." LA Weekly Editor Laurie Ochoa insists that VVM corporate headquarters has maintained a hands-off approach to the paper's editorial content and has put "more resources into news coverage." Los Angeles Magazine's Kit Rachlis agrees there should be an investigation but says "I don't think it's too paranoid to say that (the Justice Dept. is) looking into the alternative press for political reasons."
The former AAN-member paper was acquired by eXit Capital Group, the for-profit subsidiary of an educational foundation that promotes career training in the hospitality and service industries. Roy Allen, executive director of Endeavor Foundation, tells the Portland Press Herald that when it reopens on Jan. 15, Casco Bay Weekly will be a community newspaper that focuses on "good news" and features contributions from writers representing area schools, businesses and nonprofit groups.
Founder and Editor-in-Chief Russ Smith yesterday sold his iconoclastic weekly to a pair of publishing entrepreneurs for "around $5 million," according to the New York Post. New owners Chuck Coletti and Doug Meadow say they don't plan to do much on the editorial front, besides firing vacationing Editor John Strausbaugh as soon as they can find him. Smith will continue to write his "Mugger" column.
John Heaston told the Omaha World-Leader that he is buying the AAN-member Omaha Reader from the family of the late Alan Baer. Heaston helped to found the Reader before selling his stake in 1999 and later starting up the competing Omaha Weekly. The two papers will merge and, "for now," will be called the Omaha Weekly Reader, according to Heaston.
Prosecutors investigating the New Times-Village Voice Media deals in L.A. and Cleveland have scheduled depositions in Los Angeles beginning the first two weeks of January, according to The Los Angeles Times' Tim Rutten. "Sources with firsthand knowledge" tell Rutten that the probe has focused increasingly on whether the deal "influenced both advertising rates and the amount and quality of local news in both cities." Rutten also reports that those who have been questioned say "prosecutors appear keenly interested in fashioning a remedy, perhaps by way of a settlement, that would restore competition to both cities' alternative press markets."
Several months ago, the Portland police, without getting a search warrant, poked through the garbage of a fellow officer that they were investigating. They did so because, they argued, trash is public once the can gets to the street. They used evidence found in the garbage to indict the officer. Testing the "garbage is public" thesis, Willamette Week searched through the trash of Portland's police chief and a couple of other public officials -- and they aren't happy.
In an important ruling on Internet publishing, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has dismissed a Virginia prison warden's lawsuit against The Hartford Courant and the New Haven Advocate. The court ruled that articles posted on the papers' Web sites were not aimed at a Virginia audience. The decision reversed a lower court's ruling that the warden could sue in his home state "because that is where he claimed his reputation was damaged," E&P reports.
After a dismal 2001, alternative newsweeklies are looking at year over year gains in sales, publishers tell AAN News. National ad sales are still languishing at the two main networks and at individual papers, but local display and classifieds are taking up most of the slack. In fact, the economic pinch has made some AAN papers take stock and get tougher, John Ferri reports.
The Missoula Independent has hired alt-weekly veteran Brad Tyer as its new editor. Tyer, a native of Houston, takes over from Interim Editor David Madison, who will become the paper’s Flathead Bureau Chief in Kalispell, Mont. Tyer was previously editor of the Texas Observer and before that a staff reporter at the Houston Press.
- Go to the previous page
- 1
- …
- 685
- 686
- 687
- 688
- 689
- 690
- 691
- …
- 753
- Go to the next page
