Don Boys chose an unusual method to complain about his portrayal in a Creative Loafing cover story: He waited two years, then issued a 1,400-word press release. The focus of his ire is "America the Theocracy" by John F. Sugg, which was published in Atlanta's Creative Loafing on Mar. 25, 2004. According to Boys, the piece suggests he is "a spokesman for Christian Reconstructionism," when he is not part of the movement. In fact, Suggs' feature-length article only mentions Boys in a few paragraphs, but it does include the following quote: "Denying that he's a Reconstructionist ('They're mostly Presbyterians,' he says), Boys nonetheless told me last fall, 'I agree with just about all they say.'" Sugg tells AAN News that Boys did contact him by telephone about a year ago to ask for a retraction, but Sugg has not heard from him since.
Webmaster Aaron Karp and Online Editor Laura Fries turned their Loafing successes and failures into advice on the "Mostly ITP" podcast April 20. Their tips included making podcasts listenable (use segments, include interaction between two or more people, and have a pre-set structure), including advertising in podcasts and blogs (make sure it is inobtrusive and relevant to the audience) and the next big thing (social networking). The show is available for download here.
Creative Loafing Media CEO Ben Eason (pictured) has tapped Coe to become the Atlanta paper's fourth publisher in less than three years, according to a story on its Web site. The last publisher, Michael Sigman, only lasted 10 days. Coe worked for New Times, Inc., for 17 years and Village Voice Media for three years before the two companies merged last October. "I felt like the opportunities for me in Atlanta were going to be greater than they might be in this combined, larger company," he says. Coe will be focusing on building revenue and expanding the weekly's online presence; editorial content "is best left to the editors," he says. Eason has also hired a new associate publisher for the newspaper: David Schmall, formerly of Sacramento News & Review, Minneapolis's the Rake and the Dallas Morning News' free commuter daily, Quick.
Foodies at Creative Loafing (Atlanta), Riverfront Times, Westword, L.A. Weekly, East Bay Express, City Pages (Twin Cities), Phoenix New Times, and Houston Press picked up ten of the 21 nominations for which they qualified in the 2006 James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards announced today. The complete list is available as a PDF here. Alt-weeklies were particularly dominant in the "Newspaper Writing on Spirits, Wine or Beer" category, in which all three nominees are AAN members. The awards recognize and honor excellence and achievement in the culinary arts.
Mara Shalhoup's award-winning feature story is a long-form narrative that often assumes the perspective of a teenage prostitute-turned-killer. It wasn't a hard article to write, Shalhoup says, and the strong response proves that readers want more stories with a human focus. This is the 34th in a "How I Got That Story" series highlighting the AltWeekly Awards' first-place winners.
The two papers swept the Newspaper Feature Story category in this year's contest, which is administered by the Association for Women in Communications. The Loaf's Mara Shalhoup won in the circulation above 100,000 category, for Learning to Hit a Lick, which also won the Feature Story category in this year's AltWeekly Awards. And the Express' Kara Platoni won in the under 100,000 category, for The Ten Million Dollar Woman. The awards were presented this weekend in Lubbock, Texas.
