Village Voice CEO David Schneiderman announces that former Seattle Weekly Editor-in-Chief Knute "Skip" Berger will rejoin the paper this week after a two-year "sabbatical," replacing Audrey Van Buskirk. Schneiderman also names 16-year Seattle Times vet Chuck Taylor as managing editor. Van Buskirk had been hired in Nov. 2000 to replace Berger.
In yet more New Times satire, (most) readers give Phoenix New Times big ups for its parody of the Arizona Republic's recent redesign. Even a Republic staffer who asked not to be named applauded the spoof. "As one of the worker bees who's had to live through it, it was nice to see what most of us in the newsroom have been waiting for you to do."
"I hope it gets people to think about the nature of television and the business that it does." So says Tony Ortega, a New Times LA writer who admits that "maybe" he penned a "news story" reporting that NBC is about to cut a deal for "Survive This!" -- a "'Survivor' meets Hannibal Lechter"-style reality series starring the two California teenagers whose recent abduction and rape made the national news. An NBC spokeswoman says there is "no truth" to the story. Another New Times paper, the Dallas Observer, was sued earlier this year by two local officials targeted in a similar spoof.
Independent Weekly's acquisition of Raleigh's alt-weekly the Spectator will allow the newly merged Independent to beef up its A&E coverage and leaves Creative Loafing with more cash for its four AAN-member papers. "One of us ultimately had to give in to create a single financially successful paper, and we yielded to local ownership," said Ben Eason, CEO of Creative Loafing Inc.
Media giant Gannett Co. is launching its first salvo in a war to win the elusive 25-to-34 year old reader away from alternative newsweeklies. In Lansing, Mich., and Boise, Idaho, Gannett dailies are set to begin publishing "alternative" weeklies this fall. Established alts in those markets are bracing for the ruthless competition described by Richard McCord in his book "Chain Gang." Berl Schwartz, publisher of City Pulse in Lansing, scoffs at the notion the Gannett weekly will be an edgy alternative publication. "What is it an alternative to?" he asks. "Itself?"
Steve Schewel, president of Independent Weekly's parent company, and Ben Eason, president of Creative Loafing, announce the sale of Raleigh's alt-weekly to its Durham rival. By October, the two papers will merge into one, to be called the Independent. "We were able to work out this acquisition because we admire the Creative Loafing folks and their commitment to great alternative journalism in the South," Schewel said in a news release. "Instead of knocking heads with us in the Triangle, they can take the cash from this sale and build even better papers in the cities where they're already very strong."
Ron Plotkin, who would have been 62 this December, died Friday, August 9, from a cerebral hemorrhage that felled him three weeks ago. He was the kind of editor who could demand accuracy without stifling the voice of writers such as Alexander Cockburn or Jack Newfield. Plotkin, a 24-year veteran of the Voice, "in many ways, embodied the paper's often irascible spirit and its journalistic commitment," Tom Robbins writes in this week's Village Voice. (Photo by Staci Schwartz)
The Kansas City alternative newsweekly bows to the citizenry and changes its name to The Pitch. "Weekly" had been added in 1993, "but Kansas Citians never really got used to calling it the Pitch Weekly," says Editor C.J. Janovy. Nothing else about The Pitch has changed, she says.
AlterNet recently posted an unprecedented collaborative project by 36 alternative newsweeklies across the country on the plight of married priests and the effect of that talent drain on the Catholic Church. Jeff von Kaenel, a past president of AAN and a member of the AlterNet board, conceived the project as a way to demonstrate the national reach of the alternative weekly industry. Don Hazen, executive director of AlterNet, says the project helps "the public understand that there is an industry out there that is independent of the traditional, corporate media; and ... that when you go from city to city, you have a newspaper that represents that."
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