Innocent college students in Northern California are among the victims of a recent Monterey County Weekly Student Guide that recklessly exposed them to advertisements for sexy undergarments and a local custom called "happy hour."
"I come to the newspaper business honestly and organically: I was inspired as I read the Washington Post every morning as a 5th grader in 1973," Erik Cushman tells the California Newspaper Publishers Association. "I have a predisposition for foul language and strong whiskey -- and I don't object to hard work." He goes on to discuss how he ended up at the Weekly, the paper's redesigned website and its solar-power initiative.
After announcing yesterday that he was leaving Washington City Paper to edit a new local news website being launched by Allbritton Communications (the folks behind Politico), Wemple and Allbritton's Jim Brady made the media rounds to talk about the move. Here are some highlights:
- Wemple tells Politico he's excited about the potential of the new site: "I think the possibilities, the horizons, really open up if you look at the talent and the resources that are behind this."
- The site will try to incorporate work from Politico and Allbritton's two local TV operations, Wemple tells the Washington Post: "We're hoping to really carve some new ground as to how a TV and web operation can mutually reinforce themselves."
- Brady explains to Washington Business Journal why he hired Wemple: "When you read the City Paper, you get a sense they're really having fun. That's not happening in a ton of places in journalism these days."
- Wemple says he hopes to launch the site with between 15 and 20 reporters; DCist wonders if any will be current City Paper staffers.
Wemple told the City Paper staff this morning that he's leaving in mid-March to edit a new local news website being launched by Allbritton Communications. Wemple has been affiliated with City Paper on and off since 1994, and has edited the alt-weekly since 2002. Wemple says Jim Brady, the former editor of Washingtonpost.com whom Albritton tapped to lead the new project, wants the new site to have the "Washington City Paper voice and feel and sense of authority about local stuff."
The Weekly says its five-week Community Fund campaign has raised a total of $529,337 for local nonprofits. A total of 1,609 readers donated to the campaign, in amounts ranging from 27 cents to over $50,000.
AAN's executive director and Washington City Paper's editor joined the Project for Excellence in Journalism's Mark Jurkowitz and former Washington Blade editor Kevin Naff on a D.C. public-radio show yesterday for a wide-ranging discussion about how the digital transformation, changing demographics and the recession are affecting alternative media.
Washington City Paper editor Erik Wemple will discuss his award-winning media reporting with Tucson Weekly editor Jimmy Boegle on AAN.org this Friday, Oct. 30. Wemple took home first place for "One Mission, Two Newsrooms," his examination of the divide between the digital and print staffs at the Washington Post. Friday's chat will begin at 3 pm EDT.
The Weekly has completely redesigned its website and launched a corresponding mobile application. Among the cool new features on the site are a local business guide, a local song of the day on the site jukebox and feeds from local blogs and local, state and national news sources. "[The site] will be a boon to our community, expanding our content and how our readers can obtain and interface with it," Weekly CEO Bradley Zeve says. "It offers more in every way -- more accessibility and more content." The site and the mobile app were both designed in-house by longtime Weekly staffer Kevin Smith, who says he's happy to roll out the project to the public. "Plus," he adds, "maybe now I can have time to read my kids a good-night story."
This week's release of Leonard Downie Jr. and Michael Schudson's report "The Reconstruction of American Journalism" has the journalism world buzzing. "The report takes a particular interest in local accountability and enterprise reporting," Washington City Paper editor Erik Wemple notes, "which is the commodity most at stake as newspapers pare down their editorial staffs." After searching the report for any mention of the alt-weekly's role in journalism's future and finding none, Wemple says he understands. "After all, alt-weeklies ... only channel all of their editorial resources toward local reporting; only conduct long-form investigations of key local agencies and authorities all the time; only monitor city halls like no one's business; only do all kinds of arts reporting that no other outlets care to do; and have been at it only for about half a century now," he writes. "Why mention those news organizations?"
In a lengthy Post Magazine feature, City Paper alums like Russ Smith, Jack Shafer and David Carr join current leaders Erik Wemple and Ben Eason in discussing the paper's history, its legacy and its future. Even former mayor Marion Barry, who recently appeared on a City Paper cover that incited some controversy, weighs in on the alt-weekly.
