Chris Potter has been named Andy Newman's replacement as editor of Pittsburgh City Paper, reports Pittsburgh Business Times. "It was a huge surprise to me," says Potter, who has been the paper's managing editor since he and Newman came over from the now-defunct In Pittsburgh Newsweekly seven years ago. Potter will take over the position in November, after the City Paper's annual Best of Pittsburgh issue. "[Potter and I] have been conjoined for almost 10 years," Newman tells reporter Tim Schooley. "It's a very delicate procedure, but I think we'll both go on to lead productive lives."
Editor of the alt-weekly since 1998, Andy Newman will be leaving in November to try his hand as a freelance writer in New York City. "I've wanted to do this for a long time, and it seems like I should do it before they send the AARP card," he tells the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. City Paper will begin searching for his replacement immediately. Newman is currently working on a story for The Believer, and hopes to place a piece in The New Yorker within a year. He is vice president of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies' board of directors.
Pittsburgh Catholic apparently believes that its hometown alt-weekly should be wrapped in a brown bag and handed out from behind the counter. "We need to ensure that our children are protected from unhealthy and exploitative images of sexuality," says a representative of the local diocese who thinks it's "unconscionable" that Pittsburgh City Paper is openly distributed in public. “I’m not running a day care center,” City Paper editor Andy Newman tells the paper. “I have a newspaper, and I feel like other people are responsible for supervising their own children.”
Batimore City Paper Editor Andy Markowitz and his wife, Barbara Frye, plan to travel and perhaps work in Europe for the next few years. Markowitz has served on the AAN Editorial Committee since 1999 and is the most prolific contributor to the aan.org editorial discussion group. Arts Editor Lee Gardner will move into the editor’s chair upon Markowitz’ departure.
"I feel horrible about this, really," says Scott Mervis, who joined In Pittsburgh in its early days and now edits the weekly "Mag" pull-out at the local daily. "In Pittsburgh was an institution that got built up over 17 years and for it to disappear overnight is an incredible loss, I think." Several other former IP staffers agree, including Pittsburgh City Paper Editor Andy Newman, who pays his respects to the paper that introduced alternative journalism to Pittsburgh.
