Eight of the prospective members are previous applicants, and two are owned by alt-weekly veterans who had been members during a previous association with different papers. AAN members will also be asked this year to evaluate Boston's Weekly Dig and Des Moines' Cityview, the first two post-sale newspapers whose membership will be reviewed under a process established in 2004 when the association's bylaws were amended. The fate of all of these papers will be determined at the organization's next Annual Meeting, which will be held in Little Rock on Saturday, June 17, the last day of the 29th annual AAN convention.
Big Green Umbrella, a company owned by Michael Gartner and Gary Gerlach, has purchased Cityview, a Des Moines, Iowa, alt-weekly and AAN member paper, reports The Des Moines Register. Gartner also owns an interest in Pointblank, another Des Moines alt and AAN member. The two papers will merge and publish as Cityview, with Pointblank founder and editor Jon Gaskell as editor. With the last edition of Pointblank already on news racks, 10 Cityview staffers were laid off Wednesday and will interview for positions with the publication -- though not all of them will be (re)hired.
Connie Wimer, owner/publisher of Cityview in Des Moines, is the first woman ever inducted into the Iowa Business Hall of Fame. Her company, Business Publicatons Corp., publishes the weekly Des Moines Business Record in addition to Cityview and six other publications.
