Online Journalism Review looks at the success of some alt-weeklies’ online sites and asks why they are succeeding when others are folding. Dan Richardson, an OJR contributing writer, says the alt-weekly sites “are selling value-added classified services like e-mail notices. Their editorial content – the long, investigative articles and snappy reviews – are almost beside the point.” That may be bad news to writers and editors, but it is good news for the bottom line.
The work of a half dozen alternative newsweekly music writers appears in “Da Capo Best Music Writing 2001”, published this month. Guest editor, Nick Hornby, calls the collection “a dip full of good stuff.”
Stay tuned this fall for a good read in the Chicago Reader. A federal judge ordered the city to release "five banker's boxes" of confidential police documents to the alternative newsweekly by August 30. The materials were sealed after the city settled a lawsuit filed by a woman who accused a police officer of rape. In an e-mail to AAN News, Reader Editor Alison True reports that in his written opinion (Download PDF Here), U.S. District Court Judge Ruben Castillo "commended" the Reader and reporter Tori Marlan "for their thorough investigative reporting and ongoing pursuit of truth in these types of misconduct cases."
