Faced with a challenge from the ACLU, the City of Colorado Springs cancels a hearing on its request for an injunction against the Colorado Springs Independent and drops all charges against the paper. The city was trying to block the paper from publishing any information from Detective Jeffrey Huddleston's personnel file. By mistake, the detective's entire file was given to Editor Cara Degette and reporter John Dicker, who were working on an investigative piece. When the mistake was discovered, the City demanded that Dicker turn over the notes he'd been taking.

Continue ReadingCity Drops Request for Gag Order

Chicago Media Examiner spoofs the Chicago Tribune's new "alternative" weekday tabloid, RedEye. Chicago Red Face has a cool Top Ten Reasons to Read This Web Site list, a whining sports column, lots of blocks of type and pix and a paean to its readers: "You, dear reader, rule the Earth!!! You are most definitely the most coolest person ever ... We love you. We want to perform oral homage on you. We just can't put into words how amazingly incredible you are and how honored we are by your existence. Keep up the good work! "

Continue ReadingRedEye Gets the Rotten Tomato

Richard Meeker, publisher of Willamette Week, says the alt-weekly made pre-tax profits of $365,000 on revenues of $6 million in the fiscal year that ended March 31, 2002, and expects to do equally well in the current fiscal year. In his "annual report" to readers, Meeker says the economy "stinks" but his paper has been able to hold its own because newsprint prices have dropped and " local papers like ours have been hurt less than big dailies by the economy's downturn." Meeker also estimates the profits and revenues of The Oregonian, the Portland Tribune, and his alt-weekly rival, The Portland Mercury. "Journalism isn't the Merc's focus; its real appeal is attitude and bargain-basement ad rates," Meeker says.

Continue ReadingWillamette Week Has a Good Year

"The RedEye will be the newspaper equivalent of the middle-aged bald guy with a ponytail," Richard Karpel, executive director of AAN, tells Shirley Leung, a Wall Street Journal reporter. Leung looks at the precipitous flight of younger readers from daily newspapers and the checkered history of their attempts to recapture them. Chicago Reader Editor Alison True questions the entire strategy of the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times, which both launched youth-oriented weekday tabloids this week, RedEye and Red Streak, respectively. "Younger readers don't pick up a daily, so let's give them a daily?" True asks.

Continue ReadingDailies Youth Tabs Doomed?

The Chicago Sun Times' new youth-oriented tabloid Red Streak hit the streets today opposite the Chicago Tribune's RedEye. "Both papers featured slick designs and a paucity of original content," Jeremy Mullman writes in Crain's Chicago Business. Both tabloids launched Web sites today as well.

Continue ReadingSun-Times’ Youth Tab Debuts

The Ohio weekly has changed its name to simply Alive and is now "the music, art and culture paper of Columbus," Publisher Sally Crane writes in an Oct. 17 editorial. Saying the paper was "stuck in a rut," Crane says Alive will quench those who "were thirsting for more of what they find relevant to their lives" -- and that's more on the arts, music and culture scenes "with tips and top picks in each category." Crane says it's hard for her, a former investigative reporter, to admit, but the paper was taking itself "a little too seriously."

Continue ReadingColumbus Alive Shifts Focus, Changes Name

Saying it’s "just business," the Tribune Co. has ordered five Advocate*Weekly billing and administrative staff to move their offices into the Hartford Courant building. The Tribune Co. says the move will help consolidate different billing and other business practices. "People over here are saying that if they do this, what's … next?" Advocate*Weekly CEO Fran Zankowski tells AAN News.

Continue ReadingTribune Co. Transfers Advocate Staff to Courant Offices

The world's most widely recognized alternative weekly has asked The Cape Cod Voice to ''cease and desist" from using the name ''Voice'' in its print or online edition, Mark Jurkowitz reports in The Boston Globe. The Village Voice says it ''has worked hard and succeeded in gaining recognition both nationally and internationally. We will not allow anyone to have a free ride on our name or denigrate the good will associated with it." The editor and publisher of the 10,000 circulation biweekly based in Orleans, Mass., says he won't give up without a fight. "I don't think any publication has the right to tell people they don't have the right to be the voice of their community,'' he says. This isn't the first time The Village Voice has fought this battle.

Continue ReadingVillage Voice Demands That Cape Cod Voice Change Its Name