In the first installment of AAN's new interview series, Amy Austin (pictured), Dave Nuttycombe and Tim Carman of Washington City Paper describe how reader-created restaurant reviews have forged a new relationship between the newspaper's print and Web products. They also explain the meaning of sporks. To suggest a topic for a future interview, contact Amy Gill at amyg@aan.org.
Baltimore City Paper Online (citypaper.com) won a first-place EPpy in the Best Weekly Newspaper-Affiliated Web Service category, it was announced Friday. The awards honoring the best new media services from the newspaper industry are co-sponsored by E&P and Mediaweek magazines.
When the Minneapolis alt-weekly selected crystal meth as the "Best Cheap Thrill" in its annual "Best of the Twin Cities" issue, the usual suspects lined up to express their outrage, including talk-radio hosts, local TV reporters, health officials, politicians, and irate readers. Editor Steve Perry's first instinct was to stand by the blurb, explaining in an editor's note that it was a joke that was intended to make the point "that it's possible to make entirely too much of the drug hype of the hour--unless you're in radio or television, of course." But after being pounded for twelve hours, Perry issued an apology, saying that he was chastened by "a lot of comments and e-mails ... from readers who've seen the lives of loved ones wrecked or ended by meth."
The Village Voice Web site is one of five finalists in the "Newspaper" category of the 2006 Webby Awards, it was announced April 11. Winners will be named on May 9. Orlando Weekly and Baltimore City Paper have also been honored for their online work: Their Web sites are two of the three finalists in the "Best Weekly Newspaper-Affiliated Web Service" category of the EPpy Awards, which are presented by Editor & Publisher and Mediaweek. (The third finalist is a Pennsylvania community newspaper, The Almanac.) EPpy Award winners will be announced May 19.
Linda Erickson could be awarded millions of dollars in actual and punitive damages, her lawyer told The Post and Courier in Charleston. Erickson sued the City Paper's parent company, Jones Street Publishers, claiming that the newspaper defamed her in a January 2000 story on court-appointed guardians for children. The story contained "unfounded allegations against Erickson's professional abilities" made by the grandmother of a child for whom Erickson was a guardian, even though Erickson was not identified by name, according to The Post and Courier. A new jury will be seated to award damages.
His fabrications in The Village Voice were "neither culturally significant nor journalistically shocking," Philadelphia City Paper founder and former owner Bruce Schimmel writes in his weekly column, and the disciplinary actions that resulted were "a shot across the bow of the mother ship of New Journalism." But Duane Swierczynski uses his editor's letter to disagree: "If we're not vigilant about separating truth from fiction, can you imagine what schoolkids will be saying about George W. Bush in 200 years?" Fabrications are too often rewarded, and editors who prod writers for amazing dialogue need to be equally passionate about checking accuracy, Swierczynski argues.
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.
