Tampa's alt-weekly was formerly called Creative Loafing, and it will be called that again this fall, according to Editor David Warner. But a "universal brain fart'" led the paper to mistakenly make the change several months ahead of schedule and run its latest issue under the nameplate of its sister publications in Charlotte and Atlanta. "The error was partly due to the fact that while the editing staffs for Tampa and Sarasota are in Florida, design and production for all four papers in the Creative Loafing chain is done in Atlanta," Warner wrote last week on his paper's blog. "But such an error has never occurred before, and we here in Tampa should have been more alert."

Continue ReadingWeekly Planet Changes Name, Prematurely

Webmaster Aaron Karp and Online Editor Laura Fries turned their Loafing successes and failures into advice on the "Mostly ITP" podcast April 20. Their tips included making podcasts listenable (use segments, include interaction between two or more people, and have a pre-set structure), including advertising in podcasts and blogs (make sure it is inobtrusive and relevant to the audience) and the next big thing (social networking). The show is available for download here.

Continue ReadingCreative Loafing’s Web Staff Ponder the Online Future of Alt-Weeklies

Creative Loafing Media CEO Ben Eason (pictured) has tapped Coe to become the Atlanta paper's fourth publisher in less than three years, according to a story on its Web site. The last publisher, Michael Sigman, only lasted 10 days. Coe worked for New Times, Inc., for 17 years and Village Voice Media for three years before the two companies merged last October. "I felt like the opportunities for me in Atlanta were going to be greater than they might be in this combined, larger company," he says. Coe will be focusing on building revenue and expanding the weekly's online presence; editorial content "is best left to the editors," he says. Eason has also hired a new associate publisher for the newspaper: David Schmall, formerly of Sacramento News & Review, Minneapolis's the Rake and the Dallas Morning News' free commuter daily, Quick.

Continue ReadingPublisher Terry Coe Leaves Seattle Weekly to Join Creative Loafing

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.

Continue ReadingAlt-Weeklies Lap Up Nominations in Food-Writing Awards

Jan Caldwell, a classified sales rep for Creative Loafing (Charlotte), is the winner of the AAN CAN trip to Peru. Caldwell won by selling the most new advertising in the AAN CAN network between Nov. 10 and Jan. 31. When notified yesterday, she reacted with disbelief, then quickly called her daughter and the friend she is planning to take with her on her trip. Caldwell may rake in other goodies as well, since some classified managers decided to make the contest more interesting by wagering items such as wine and tour books via the AAN Classified Management mailing list.

Continue ReadingAAN CAN Winner Announced!

Mara Shalhoup's award-winning feature story is a long-form narrative that often assumes the perspective of a teenage prostitute-turned-killer. It wasn't a hard article to write, Shalhoup says, and the strong response proves that readers want more stories with a human focus. This is the 34th in a "How I Got That Story" series highlighting the AltWeekly Awards' first-place winners.

Continue ReadingMara Shalhoup: Depicting the Life of a Teenage Killer

In a story published Saturday, the alt-weekly and its parent company, Creative Loafing, Inc., announced that return figures had been inaccurate, possibly for years, under former Circulation Director Zarko Bajsanski. The paper has taken steps to correct the problem, including firing Bajsanski and at least one driver. "I feel like I'm a victim in this as well," says publisher Amber Abram. Bajsanski blames the drivers for providing inaccurate return sheets. The Weekly Planet has also dropped its print run from 95,000 to 85,000 copies and eliminated financial incentives for drivers to keep returns low. Advertising materials have not been changed, and the paper's management expects an upcoming Media Audit report to be consistent with the quality of readership figures provided to advertisers.

Continue ReadingTampa’s Weekly Planet Deals With Circulation Problems

It wasn't a phoned-in tip that led to Tara Servatius's story for Creative Loafing (Charlotte), "Flawed Priorities," but some statistics she stumbled across on a Web site. Once she started crunching numbers, she was hooked. Her inquiry led her to draw some pointed conclusions about why students at certain Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools were lagging behind other students. This is the 10th in a "How I Got That Story" series highlighting the AltWeekly Awards' first-place winners.

Continue ReadingTara Servatius: Crunching the Damning Numbers