Marc Brancaccio leaves New Times Los Angeles to become publisher of Pasadena Weekly, replacing Charles Gerencser, who has moved to San Diego to start up San Diego CityBeat. At Ventura County Reporter, Sharon McKenna, also an alt-weekly veteran, becomes editor, replacing David Rolland, who is editor at CityBeat.

Continue ReadingNew Publisher, Editor at Southland Pubs

The Stranger this week publishes its First Annual "Best of [our advertisers in] Seattle 2002" issue, taking a few pot shots at Seattle Weekly's recent "Best of Seattle" issue in the process. "We know when we're licked," the newspaper says in its introduction to the feature. "Dump the irony, screw the humor, and cut out the fucking middleman. Kissing the asses of advertisers is a game that two can play."

Continue ReadingStranger Smooches Advertisers’ Behinds

Ownership of Illinois Times reverted today from bankrupt Yesse Communications to former owner, Fletcher "Bud" Farrar. Immediate changes include dropping sex ads, increasing circulation and moving distribution back inside grocery stores. Farrar says in a news release he intends to make 27-year-old Illinois Times more "family friendly" and transform it into a community newspaper "in the best tradition of small-town weeklies."

Continue ReadingNew Owner, No Sex Ads, at Illinois Times

Dallas Observer's Eric Celeste understands why the local daily rejects them, but he's not sure why his own paper is cutting back. Publisher Alison Draper says it's because sex ads are "a managerial nightmare." And Editor Julie Lyons, who thinks the ads are "disgusting," calls Draper's decision to scale them back "the most courageous thing I've ever seen a publisher do."

Continue ReadingAlt-Weekly Columnist Asks: What’s Wrong With Sex Ads?

Terry Coe, former publisher of Riverfront Times, is the new publisher of Seattle Weekly, David Schneiderman, CEO of Village Voice Media announced today. Coe resigned from the St. Louis newsweekly in May after 17 years with the New Times organization.

Continue ReadingCoe Named Seattle Weekly Publisher

The ink is barely dry on the sale of SLAMM, a San Diego music biweekly, but the new owners have set Aug. 21 as the launch date for a new redesigned alternative newspaper, San Diego CityBeat. The new weekly will target the 21- to 45-year-old crowd and San Diego's central university and historic neighborhoods, Publisher Charles Gerencser says. "I wouldn't have moved my pregnant wife and sold my house in Los Angeles, where I've lived my whole life, if I didn't think this was going to be an amazingly successful venture," Gerencser says.

Continue ReadingSLAMM Reincarnating as San Diego CityBeat

Publisher Mark Bartel of City Pages (Twin Cities) has fired Editor Tom Finkel because they disagreed on whether the paper should change direction, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. Finkel came to City Pages in 1997 from Miami New Times. "I don't want to play this like Tom and I have been butting heads for 4 1/2 years; I really like Tom," Bartel tells the daily. "I just felt like I wanted the editorial to take more chances, to be edgier."

Continue ReadingFinkel Fired from Editor’s Post at City Pages

"That we keep finding incompetence at The Tennessean is apparently no longer news," says Editor Bruce Dobie, telling the Scene's readers that 13 years of "Desperately Seeking the News" is enough. The column had become "far too formulaic and predictable," Dobie complains. "Bruce is wrong, as editors often are," argues media columnist Henry Walker, who nevertheless is forced to admit, "What the editor giveth, He can taketh away."

Continue ReadingNashville Scene Deep-Sixes Media Column

Betty Brink claims the AAN-member paper hired Pulitzer-winning former Dallas Morning News reporter Dan Malone at a salary exceeding her own by over 50%. The Dallas Observer reports that Brink -- at 70 perhaps the oldest working journalist in the alternative newspaper business -- has filed a complaint with the EEOC, alleging age and gender discrimination.

Continue ReadingFort Worth Weekly Reporter Files Discrimination Complaint

"It's a newspaper advertising category that for decades has been owned lock, stock, and fur-lined handcuffs by alternative papers," reports Editor & Publisher's Mark Fitzgerald. "But now increasing numbers of daily newspapers are coyly succumbing to the many seductions of sex ads." Don't provide a sales rep, jack up the rates, slap restrictions on the ads -- despite these barriers, adult sections in most alternatives still grow like kudzu. Daily papers are beginning to take notice.

Continue ReadingSeeking Adult Ads, Dailies Encroach on Alternative Turf