Ground will be broken on the new three-story building within the next two months, the Weekly reports. It will be the first office project in Palo Alto to be certified LEED "silver" -- a designation given when a building incorporates numerous environmentally sensitive features. "While it adds considerable complexity and cost, we wanted to use this project as an opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to these environmental principles and to create a building that will be healthy and comfortable for our employees, as well as a model for future developers," Weekly publisher Bill Johnson says. Construction is expected to be completed by summer 2009.
Palo Alto Sports Online went live on Friday as part of Palo Alto Online, the Weekly's community-based website. The interactive site will feature heavy use of video and databases to further extend the citizen journalism concepts being explored on Palo Alto Online. "Our local sports community is passionate and tech-savvy, and we are excited about providing a rich and interactive way to report on sports in the Palo Alto area," publisher Bill Johnson says.
Alexandria Rocha's story about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students won a 2006 John Swett Award for Media Excellence. The awards, given by the California Teachers Association, recognize "excellence in covering public education."
AAN members won 15 first-place awards in the California Association of Newspaper Publishers' annual contest, led by Palo Alto Weekly, which took home five firsts. Chico News & Review placed first in in three categories; Pacific Sun won two; and Metro Santa Cruz, North Coast Journal, Sacramento News & Review, San Francisco Bay Guardian, and the Santa Barbara Independent each finished in first in one category. The awards were presented in a ceremony Saturday evening.
In the "Town Square," a new section of the Palo Alto Weekly's Web site, visitors "may publish their own news stories, share opinions and engage in dialogue on local issues," according to Publisher Bill Johnson's announcement. Palo Alto Weekly gets 300,000 unique visitors monthly; Town Square participants are not required to register, but they must identify their neighborhood of residence when posting. "In essence, Town Square turns everyone into potential publishers and makes it possible to communicate directly with other community members without depending on the newspaper," Johnson said.
