The Oklahoma Gazette won sixteen awards at the Oklahoma Society of Professional Journalists annual awards banquet this weekend, taking top honors in eight categories.
Last week, Gazette editor Rob Collins alerted AAN News to the striking similarities between Newsweek's Dec. 15 cover and one published by the alt-weekly on Feb. 5, 2004. The Gazette's image, which was designed by art director Chris Street and shot by photographer Shannon Cornman, was one of three Gazette entries that won a 2005 AltWeekly Award. "Is imitation the sincerest form of flattery? Sometimes, a picture is worth a thousand words," Collins says.
Five papers are duking it out in the 128,000-population Northern Colorado town, and two of them have an alt-weekly pedigree, Westword reports. The Rocky Mountain Chronicle debuted in October, arising from the ashes of former AAN member Rocky Mountain Bullhorn, and the mostly direct-mailed Fort Collins Weekly launched in early 2003, with Boulder Weekly alum Greg Campbell and Joel Dyer at the helm. The other three are faux-alts, including one owned by Gannett's Coloradan, which Campbell calls "one of the weakest, worst daily newspapers I've ever come across." Chronicle Editor Vanessa Martinez (pictured) predicts they won't all survive. "I think some of them are going to fall by the wayside," she says.
