Last Wednesday, Chris Thompson reported that American soldiers have been trading gruesome photographs of dead and mutilated Iraqis in return for free access to an amateur porn site. Thompson wrote, "(I)n the weeks since the European press uncovered the story and in the week since the site was first noticed by Eric Muller, law professor and author of the blog IsThatLegal.com, not a single US daily newspaper had covered it." That silence ended yesterday when the Army announced that it has launched an investigation of the matter.
Chris Rohland resigned yesterday as president and publisher of New York Press, effective May 27. Rohland says he's leaving to "concentrate (his) energies to other projects, including the development of a sales training program" for other publications. He also says that Avalon Equity, the owners of the Press, are not presently seeking to replace him, and that "members of the Avalon team will be overseeing operations until a decision on the publisher position has been made."
Rather than accept a two-week suspension without pay, NY Press Editor in Chief Jeff Koyen resigned this morning. His departure comes on the heels of intense public criticism of a feature titled "The 52 Funniest Things About the Upcoming Death of the Pope" that ran in the paper last week. President and Publisher Chris Rohland tells Editor & Publisher that -- contrary to comments Koyen made to the Web site Gawker -- the suspension wasn't due to the Pope article itself but a related instance of insubordination.
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."
Jeremy Voas, editor of Detroit's Metro Times since October 2001, was fired last week, reports the Detroit News. He contends the dismissal was prompted by his disagreement with publisher Lisa Rudy over the paper's mission in general and its emphasis on special sections in particular. "I thought if the paper wanted to do more of that kind of thing they needed to hire a special staff to do more promotional issues," he says. Curt Guyette, news editor at the Metro Times, says Voas' departure will be addressed in Wednesday's issue.
Following a nine-year absence, former account executive Lisa Rudy (pictured) returns to Detroit's alt-weekly to replace David Jost, who resigned as publisher last month. Rudy says Metro Times is her kind of paper: “I like everything it stands for. It’s just so community-based. It's hip, but it's real. I like the kind of reader that is interested in Metro Times, readers that like to be challenged.”
