Started as a hell-raising environmental, liberal weekly in 1968, the venerable Maine Times published its last issue last week. Christopher Hutchins, the weekly's latest owner (a conservative), told the staff he was no longer willing to cover the paper's losses, Editor Jay Davis tells the Portland Press Herald. "The Maine Times that folded yesterday isn't the Maine Times that we started in 1968," said [John] Cole, who lives in Brunswick. "Readers no longer were absolutely sure what the Maine Times stood for," the Press Herald reports. The Maine Times, formerly an AAN-member paper, hosted the 1987 AAN convention.

Continue ReadingMaine Times Publishes Last Issue

Kiki Yablon, who plays guitar in a punk rock band, has been promoted to managing editor of the Chicago Reader. She has been on the Reader's staff since 1996, directing the alt-weekly's music coverage, the Chicago Sun Times reports. Editor Alison True says Yablon is "perfect" for the job and won the position over a host of outside applicants. True has also promoted three Reader associate editors to senior editor: Holly Greenhagen, Kitry Krause and Laura Molzahn.

Continue ReadingPunk Rocker Becomes Reader ME

Award-winning political writer and columnist Jim DeFede has resigned from Miami New Times, the Daily Business Review reports. DeFede, who has been at the paper for more than 10 years and says "(i)t was a great place to work," plans to write a book about the diversion of commercial air traffic to Newfoundland on Sept. 11. Local journalist Ed Wasserman says, “[DeFede] electrified municipal coverage in this town. He was simply the best I’ve seen in my 20-some years here.”

Continue ReadingVeteran Reporter Resigns From Miami New Times

Chris Rohland, publisher of the non-AAN member alternative Las Vegas Weekly, is recovering from surgery to repair broken bones suffered in the April 14 accident that killed two people. Rohland's SUV was struck when a Ford Mustang crossed the center line into on-coming traffic. The two occupants of the Mustang were killed. Rohland had been scheduled to moderate a session at the AAN Convention on "How and Why To Do a Readership Study."

Continue ReadingChris Rohland Injured in Fatal Car Accident

Bob Norman of New Times Broward/Palm Beach was the big winner in this year's Green Eyeshade competition, picking up three awards, including two first-places. Norman wasn't alone; AAN members captured 15 of the 24 awards handed out in the weekly/monthly category of SPJ's Southeast region contest: Miami New Times picked up six, New Times Broward/Palm Beach won five, Creative Loafing Atlanta took home three, and the Nashville Scene received one.

Continue ReadingAAN Papers Bat .625 in SPJ-Southeast Contest

Two New Times investigative series were selected as winners in the 2002 John Bartlow Martin Awards, sponsored by Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism. First place went to "Fallout," a look at the U.S. Navy's radioactive legacy in the Bay Area by SF Weekly's Lisa Davis. Phoenix New Times staff writer Amy Silverman captured third place for her special series "Slammed," which exposed abuses in Arizona's juvenile justice system. Sandwiched between them was Katherine Boo, former managing editor of Washington City Paper, for her story in The New Yorker on welfare mothers.

Continue ReadingNew Times Dominates John Bartlow Martin Awards

Andy Newman, editor of Pittsburgh City Paper, interviews John Backderf, "known to everyone but his mother simply as Derf." Derf's comic strip "The City" strip appears in more than 50 AAN member papers. Newman asks Derf about two comic books he just published, one called "My Friend Dahmer" about being high school pals with serial cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer and another about working on the back of a garbage truck.

Continue ReadingDerf on Growing Up with Dahmer

Under a settlement with the city, Bay Area newspapers have agreed to let the city erect pedmounts in high-traffic areas. Problem is, a subsidiary of media conglomerate Clear Channel Communications will control those pedmounts, who gets to use them and what's advertised on the back. "The idea of giving Clear Channel exclusive control over newspaper distribution -- and ad space on the back of the news racks -- in the city is extremely troubling," the San Francisco Bay Guardian writes.

Continue ReadingClear Channel Empire To Control SF News Racks

Bill Carey, a contributor to the Nashville Scene, will be moving to Knoxville this September to become editor of Metro Pulse. He will replace current Editor Jesse Mayshark, who is moving to New York. Metro Pulse also has a new managing editor, Scott McNutt, who has been the alt-weekly's monthly humor columnist. Mayshark, who is getting married this summer, says he wants to return to writing and reporting.

Continue ReadingScene Writer Moving to Knoxville’s Metro Pulse

Bowing to reader pressure, Cincinnati CityBeat has resumed printing movie times for two art movie houses after a nearly yearlong standoff with the owner. City Beat's film critic, Steve Ramos, is still banned at the theaters, and the owner, Gary Goldman, still won't allow CityBeat racks in the lobby. Ramos made Goldman mad last June by revealing that Goldman had ordered three XXX seconds of film snipped out of the movie, The Center of the World. "We will not, however, apologize for br eaking the unauthorized editing story last year, nor will we apologize for criticizing Goldman's handling of the situation," Co-Publisher and Editor John Fox writes.

Continue ReadingCityBeat Critic Still Banned at Art Movie House