Editor Jon Whiten is leaving the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies; he will be replaced by current Editorial Awards and Advertising Director Jason Zaragoza. Whiten, who joined AAN in January 2006, is stepping down to focus on the local news website and arts & culture magazine he owns and operates in Jersey City, N.J. His last day on staff is March 31, but he will continue as a part-time contractor, overseeing AAN.org, for a month or two, as Zaragoza transitions from his current position into the editor role.
"With the opening of its Washington bureau, Talking Points Memo is becoming an ever more powerful player in the online news arena," American Journalism Review reports, rightly noting that the bureau is housed in AAN's office suite in downtown D.C. We've been happily sharing space with TPM since Oct. 1.
On Nov. 20, AAN officially stopped accepting applications for the executive director position. Since then, the Executive Committee has narrowed a list of more than 75 candidates to a group of eight individuals. At the same time, the committee created a Hiring Committee to oversee the rest of the process; this newly formed committee's first task will be further winnowing the group of eight down to a smaller group of finalists, who will then be invited to AAN headquarters in Washington, D.C. for interviews.
AAN's executive director and Washington City Paper's editor joined the Project for Excellence in Journalism's Mark Jurkowitz and former Washington Blade editor Kevin Naff on a D.C. public-radio show yesterday for a wide-ranging discussion about how the digital transformation, changing demographics and the recession are affecting alternative media.
As we announced on Monday, AAN's longtime executive director, Richard Karpel, is stepping down to take the same position at the American Society of News Editors. AAN has placed ads to find his successor on four websites and has received more than 20 applications thus far. The Executive Committee of the Board of Directors will do an initial screening of the candidates later this month; after this is complete, President Mark Zusman will appoint a separate committee that will likely meet and interview the finalists and make a recommendation to the Board of Directors.
Richard Karpel, who joined the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies as its executive director in July 1995, is leaving AAN for the same position at the American Society of News Editors. His last day will be Nov. 25, although he has agreed to help the association in an unofficial capacity after that date to assist in the transition to a new staff chief executive. "I have been at AAN for the better part of my adult life, and it has been an incredible ride," he says. "I want to thank all of the AAN members past and present who have made my time here such a rich and rewarding experience." MORE: Here's ASNE's announcement.
That's what the Yale Daily News finds in a report on how three local news organizations are faring in the downturn. While the Advocate's "circulation is steady," as managing editor John Stoehr points out, publisher Joshua Mamis admits that the paper's page count has decreased. Mamis also notes that although the paper has lost some national advertisers, many local advertisers have remained loyal.
After a one-year absence, both AAN West and the Web Publishing Conference are slated to return to the Bay Area this winter. The Web Publishing Conference will begin with a social event on the evening of Wednesday, Jan. 27, and will end on the afternoon of Friday, Jan. 29. AAN West will begin that afternoon in Berkeley, with programming continuing all day on Saturday, Jan. 30.
"Sales may be flat, bookstores may be struggling and book sections may be dying, but the critical conversation about books continues to be robust, intelligent and adventurous," former San Francisco Chronicle book critic Patricia Holt writes on Huffington Post. She points to six websites as proof, including AltWeeklies.com, of which she writes: "If you're weary of the received wisdom of official book review sites ... here is a treasury of refreshing and often unpredictable takes from alternative weeklies all over the country."
Jeffrey Billman, who won first place for investigative reporting in the under-50,000 circulation category for his Orlando Weekly piece "Might Makes Right," will discuss the story with Weekly editor Bob Whitby in a conversation moderated by the San Francisco Bay Guardian's Tim Redmond. Like last week, the live chat will happen right here on AAN.org and will take place Friday at 3 pm EDT.
