Boise

In an opinion column published yesterday, Boise Weekly editor Rachael Daigle affirms her paper's commitment to maintaining a wall between editorial and advertising. The column is in response to Chicago Reader publisher Alison Draper's recent declaration that her paper will "push" the line between the two. Daigle calls foul on the notion:

Blurring the lines between editorial and advertising is called advertorial. It's not journalistic, it's not ethical to pass it off as editorial content and it's the public that loses when editorial integrity is compromised.

No matter how bad business was at BW during the heaviest part of the recession, we never once considered chipping away at the wall that separates our editorial and advertising departments. The day BW Publisher Sally Freeman announces her intention to "push" the line between editorial and sales will be the day I'll hand her my resignation. Thankfully, Freeman is BW's biggest protector of that line.
It just so happens that AAN editors will be discussing this topic during a roundtable session next Thursday in Toronto.

Continue ReadingBoise Weekly Editor: ‘It’s Not OK’ to Mix Editorial and Advertising

The AAN Diversity Grant Program, which was instituted in 2001 to help papers add diversity to their newsrooms and to encourage minority journalists to start their careers at alt-weeklies, is accepting new applications. The program offers AAN papers the opportunity to apply for a grant for a diversity-related project or for an intern. The Diversity Committee will award up to four grants of $1,250 each per year; the deadline for applications is April 23. Recent awardee Boise Weekly tells AAN News that the "global culture blog" for the local refugee community it launched with the grant money "would have never happened" without the Diversity Grant. Now that the blog has become a success, the Weekly will keep it going with its own funding. (For all the details, download an application here.)

Continue ReadingDiversity Grant Applications Now Available

"Zeal can only take a publication so far in this business before the numbers start to intervene," Weekly editor Rachael Daigle writes. "Last week, the numbers officially intervened, and Idaho Arts Quarterly was quietly laid to rest to live on only in Boise Weekly's archives." The publication was eight years old. "I want to thank all of the people who worked with us to create the latest incarnation of IAQ, particularly the contributing writers and artists," IAQ editor Katy Dang says. "I am extremely proud of what we accomplished."

Continue ReadingBoise Weekly Folds Quarterly Arts Publication

The Weekly's eighth annual Cover Art Auction, which took place this Wednesday, was its most successful yet, grossing more than $15,000. "Once we've paid the bill for framing every piece, we expect to put more than $12,000 into Boise Weekly's private art grant, for which any local artist or organization is eligible to apply," editor Rachael Daigle writes. "That's roughly $800 more than we've ever put back into the art community."

Continue ReadingBoise Weekly Cover Auction Nets Record Proceeds

The Weekly has been printed at Idaho's Snake River Printing for the past seven years, but that will change next week. The paper will now be printed in another state -- at Utah's Print Works (which also prints the Salt Lake City Weekly). "This has been a difficult decision because of our desire to keep our business local," publisher Sally Freeman says. "But circumstances beyond our control have forced us to make this difficult decision." Editor Rachael Daigle says that there just weren't many local printers that could handle the paper's print run of 30,000 each week; as an added bonus, she notes, the printer switch will allow for more color in the Weekly.

Continue ReadingBoise Weekly Makes ‘Difficult’ Decision to Go with a New Printer

"The project has been both the most benign undertaking of the year and the most important," Weekly editor Rachael Daigle writes, "as an industrywide slump forced staffing changes while we simultaneously rolled out a new website, inaugurated first-ever supplements, and then radically changed Best of Boise." She says "the new design represents a maturity" in the nearly-18-year-old alt-weekly.

Continue ReadingBoise Weekly Unveils Redesigned Print Product

BW's iPhone app that will provide users details about local happy hours should be available next week, according to KTRV-TV. The app will include need-to-know information on each happy hour, including travel directions and details on drink specials. "If there's something in particular you want to go and do you can really narrow it down and not play the guessing game," the Weekly's Shea Sutton says.

Continue ReadingBoise Weekly Working on Happy Hour iPhone App

Boise Weekly and Omaha's The Reader each recently received $1,250 from AAN to pursue ambitious diversity-related projects as part of AAN's Diversity Grant program. Last fall, the Diversity Committee expanded the scope of the program to include diversity-related projects; the grants to Boise Weekly and The Reader mark the first to be awarded to projects rather than interns.

Continue ReadingDiversity Grants Fund Innovative Projects at Two Alt-Weeklies