The Burlington, Vt., alt-weekly has promoted three longtime employees to associate publisher positions. Online editor Cathy Resmer, creative director Don Eggert and sales director Colby Roberts will retain their current roles while taking on an increasing number of projects in the publisher realm. "Cathy, Don and Colby have emerged as real leaders at Seven Days and have a lot to do with how far we've come as a media company," says publisher and co-editor Paula Routly. "We want to recognize that by entrusting them with more responsibility for our future growth and development."
In the old days, when the media reported on problems in the newspaper industry, alternative newspapers weren't included. But alt-weeklies are immune no longer: In 2008, many AAN papers faced some of the same issues afflicting their mainstream brethren in the print media. However, you can still find alt-weeklies that had a pretty good year in 2008. That's just what AAN's editor Jon Whiten did, and he reports on 10 papers that increased revenue in a story published by Editor & Publisher.
Peter Freyne, who wrote the "Inside Track" column for the Burlington, Vt., alt-weekly from 1995 until March 2008, died early this morning after battling cancer, seizures and a strep infection that spread to his brain, according to Seven Days. He was 59 years old. "Vermont has lost its own version of the legendary Mike Royko," says U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy. "He knew the difference between healthy skepticism and hollow cynicism, and his reporting helped make Vermont better."
In the eleventh installment of this year's "How I Got That Story" series, Seven Days food editor Suzanne Podhaizer talks about her winning columns, which covered oysters, bread-making and the intersection of chain-restaurant casual dining and sustainability. Podhaizer tells Ling Ma about how she approaches describing food, what she'd cook for her last meal, and the telling theme of her wedding vows. "My vows were almost entirely about how meaningful it is to share food with somebody, and meeting someone you want to give the best parts of a meal to," she says.
The Burlington, Vt., alt-weekly explores the world of complex and often contradictory fair housing laws through its own story: The paper has been accused of violating fair housing laws several times, and was fined $45,000 for doing so on one occasion. "'Single occupancy only,' 'Not Section 8 approved' -- these are terms we thought described physical attributes of the property, as in occupancy limits for fire code," notes publisher Paula Routly. "In fact, the pamphlet we were given for reference said that language was OK. Turns out it was designed for landlords, not publishers." The paper also notes the different legal standards for websites like Craigslist and print publications, which has put an even larger burden on alt-weeklies, already facing stiff competition from web-based classifieds. "Even when their users violate state and federal fair-housing laws, the websites themselves are held faultless," Seven Days reports.
This year's Burlington Business Award recognizes Seven Days for "for exemplary business practices, contributions to the community and promotion of a positive image for Burlington." Co-founders Pamela Polston and Paula Routly accepted the award at the Burlington Business Assocation dinner this week, where more than 400 attendees, including Vermont's governor and the mayor of Burlington, gave them a standing ovation.
Peter Freyne, who started writing for the Burlington alt-weekly two months after it launched in 1995, announced in this week's "Inside Track" column that it would be his last, the Times Argus reports. After beating cancer last year, Freyne says he realized that writing about state politics had begun to bore and depress him. "That's why the column and the blog stopped two weeks ago. We finally acknowledged the unhappiness generated by writing them," he writes. "And you know what? We haven't felt this good in years!" While he's ending his column, he will remain affiliated with Seven Days as a contributing editor and blogger. U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy says that Freyne's retirement is a "big loss" for Vermont. "I went to his blog every day," Leahy tells the Times Argus. "He is the type of writer who clearly knows hypocrisy. But he also knows the difference between healthy skepticism and cynicism."
While working on a story on the growth of Vermont's bottled water industry, reporter Mike Ives arranged an interview with a hydrogeologist from the state's Agency of Natural Resources (ANR). But when it came time to conduct the interview, Ives was referred instead to Sabina Haskell, ANR's communications director, who eventually told him, "I won't be able to line up anyone to talk to you." In the meantime, she'd also circulated an internal memo directing ANR employees not to speak with Seven Days unless clearing it with her. "Twice since I've been here," Haskell says as justification, "we've made ourselves readily available and were told that interviews were going to go one way and the story turned out completely differently." The dispute "spilled over to the Vermont Legislature" this week, according to the Rutland Herald. During hearings on two open government bills, the chairwoman of the Senate Government Operations Committee brought up the memo "as an example of how difficult it sometimes is to get agency experts to speak to legislative committees."
The paper's director of digital development tells AAN News that the widget pulls its "I Saw You" listings into Facebook. "Our users love to check these out to see if they or someone they know has been spotted. Now they don't have to wait a week to read them," Bob Kilpatrick says. "The most recent three postings update on their Facebook profile every hour. It brings our brand to mind and increases readership: The widget connects right to our personals site so potential new users can create profiles and start making contacts." If you're interested in finding out more about the widget or having Seven Days build one for your personal ads, email Bob at bob (at) sevendaysvt.com.
