Read more about the article The Listings Calendar: Alts’ Mainstay Faces Stiff Competition

Hartford Advocate Editor Alistair Highet calls the listings calendar his paper's "universal point of interest." The calendar is -- and long has been -- indispensable for most alt-weeklies, attracting readers who don't necessarily agree with a paper's perceived political stance. But the marketplace is increasingly crowded with online and print publications listing concerts and theater times. Freelance reporter Charlie Deitch speaks with AAN members to find out what they're doing to fend off competitors' attempts to infringe on the alts' longtime stronghold.

Continue ReadingThe Listings Calendar: Alts’ Mainstay Faces Stiff Competition

Journal Newspapers, Inc. will begin distributing the Examiner on Feb. 1, reports the Washington Post. (The Washington Post Co. publishes Express, the District's other free daily.) Journal Newspapers currently publishes free suburban tabloids in Northern Virginia and Maryland, and is owned by Phil Anschutz's Clarity Media Group Inc., which also owns the San Francisco Examiner. In October 2004, Clarity trademarked variations of the Examiner brand using the names of cities nationwide.

Continue ReadingAnother Free Daily to Launch in Washington, D.C.

According to the Outer Banks Sentinel, Yes! Weekly, "an alternative newspaper" that "will focus on the cultural, political and artistic aspects of [Greensboro, N.C.]" is set to begin publication in January 2005. The paper is a venture of Womack Newspapers, Inc., which is a division of Womack Publishing Co., a publisher of 21 papers -- two of them dailies -- in Virginia, North Carolina and Colorado. Yes! will be distributed free to more than 300 racks and business locations throughout the city.

Continue ReadingNew Weekly Launches in North Carolina

The trouble started in 1998, when the Chicago Sun-Times broke ground on a new printing press on the south side of Chicago. The start-up process was a "nightmare," the publisher said. The press malfunctioned, causing the paper to hit the streets late and leading to mass subscription cancellations.

Continue ReadingDailies Padded Circ Figures to Keep Ad Rates High

Steve Bailey of the Boston Globe looks at the impending battle between Boston Phoenix and Boston's Weekly Dig. He writes that "others have tried to take on [Phoenix publisher Stephen] Mindich and failed," and that the owners of Boston and Philadelphia magazines "have bought the five-year-old Weekly Dig with plans to pour in the resources and turn up the heat on the Phoenix." Bailey paints a picture of Old Guard vs. Youth Movement, of Champion vs. Challenger, before surmising, "More newspapers are better than fewer newspapers."

Continue ReadingBoston’s Phoenix and Weekly Dig Set to Tangle

Sacramento News & Review president and CEO Jeff von Kaenel was sick of the Sacramento Bee offering advertisers huge discounts in Ticket, the daily's arts and entertainment weekly insert, reports Sacramento Business Journal. So he sent out 250 letters to Bee advertisers that weren't getting discounts -- that is, Bee advertisers that hadn't been poached away from the News & Review -- citing the cheaper rates and asking, "Are you paying this?" Von Kaenel tells SBJ that he sees the discounts as the Bee's attempt to "take us out," and that the daily is "engaging in practices I believe are suspect."

Continue ReadingNews & Review Launches Counterattack on the Sacramento Bee

Lloyd Brown, editorial page editor at the Florida Times-Union since 1993, has resigned after a task force established by the paper found three instances of plagiarism and many other instances of lack of complete attribution. The task force was formed in the wake of Folio Weekly's Oct. 12 cover story, written by a former Times-Union staffer, which accused Brown of publishing editorials with portions lifted directly from documents produced by right-wing groups. In a letter that appears in the Times-Union's Nov. 2 edition, publisher Carl Cannon writes, "I have a high level of respect for [Brown's] philosophy."

Continue ReadingTimes-Union Editor Accused of Plagiarism by Folio Weekly Resigns

Editor John Mecklin takes aim at a "smelly BS-offensive emanating" from the San Francisco Bay Guardian, which, he says, contains "huge doses of distortion, some outright falsehood, and very little truth." Mecklin says the "capper" to this offensive is the predatory-pricing lawsuit that Bay Guardian filed last week against SF Weekly and its sister publication, East Bay Express. The Bay Guardian has long tried "to convince San Francisco of the dangerous evil that a New Times-owned SF Weekly represents," writes Mecklin. "Over that time, SF Weekly has sailed ahead, and the Bay Guardian has foundered." (Second item on linked page.) Also addressed: SF Weekly's response to Puni-comic controversy. (Main item on linked page.)

Continue ReadingSF Weekly Responds to Bay Guardian Lawsuit

The recent acknowledgments of circulation inflation by three prominent newspaper companies have prompted at least a half-dozen other chains to install safeguards intended to bolster confidence in their circulation figures. The new policies by the chains - including Knight Ridder, the McClatchy Company newspapers and E. W. Scripps - have all been put in place in advance of Nov. 1. That is the date when the Audit Bureau of Circulations, which acts as both an industrywide clearinghouse and umpire, is scheduled to release March-to-September circulation figures for about 1,000 daily papers.

Continue ReadingDailies Create New Safeguards After Circ Scandals

Folio Weekly's Oct. 12 cover story accuses the Florida Times-Union -- and editorial page editor Lloyd Brown, in particular -- of publishing editorials with portions lifted directly from documents produced by right-wing groups. The article, penned by former Times-Union editorial writer Billee Bussard, has prompted the Jacksonville daily to launch an internal investigation, reports Editor & Publisher. Times-Union publisher Carl Cannon says, "I would never expect to find plagiarism at our paper, and I would be surprised if we did in this case." Brown tells reporter Joe Strupp: "I think we try to base our editorials on fact, and we have to get them from somewhere."

Continue ReadingAlt-Weekly Article Spurs Plagiarism Probe at Large Daily