Bob Norman of New Times Broward-Palm Beach and Bruce Rushton of Phoenix New Times were named today as finalists in the 2005 Gerald Loeb Awards contest. Norman and Rushton received two of the four nominations in the small-newspapers category, which includes papers with circulation under 150,000. The Loeb Awards, which recognize superior business journalism, have been presented by UCLA's Anderson School of Management since 1973.
On Feb. 18, a judge ruled that the paper's predatory-pricing lawsuit against New Times Media may proceed, and gave New Times 30 days to answer the complaint or appeal the ruling.
In an article in this week's edition of SF Weekly, Editor John Mecklin suggests that the San Francisco Bay Guardian is facing financial problems brought about largely from the purchase of a new office building, and that these problems might be behind the Bay Guardian's suit against SF Weekly, East Bay Express and New Times, Inc. In order to counter the suit's claim that New Times' Bay Area papers are discounting ads below cost, Mecklin offers accounts of the Guardian engaging in those very practices.
The San Francisco Bay Guardian filed a lawsuit in the city's Superior Court against SF Weekly, East Bay Express and New Times Media, LLC, which owns the two weeklies. The suit alleges that New Times repeatedly sold ads at less than the cost of producing them and offered secret deals to advertisers to keep them from advertising in the Bay Guardian. Both activities would violate California law. New Times owns 11 alternative papers, all of which, like the Bay Guardian, are members of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies.
The recipients of this year's National Association of Black Journalists Awards were announced Oct. 9 in Washington, D.C. New Times writers fared impressively, winning nine of the 22 awards handed out to newspapers with a circulation of 150,000 or less. Dallas Observer, Cleveland Scene, Phoenix New Times and New Times Broward-Palm Beach each had writers take home awards, while Riverfront Times writers won four awards -- including a clean sweep of the business category by Randall Roberts and Mike Seely. According to the NABJ, the awards recognize "outstanding coverage of people or important issues in the African diaspora."
Twelve former employees of the Cleveland Free Times have filed a lawsuit in Ohio against New Times and Village Voice Media, reports the San Francisco Bay Guardian. The suit is the latest fallout from an October 2002 deal between the two companies that shuttered Free Times and New Times Los Angeles. The deal led to a Justice Department antitrust investigation that culminated in a consent decree in which neither company admitted guilt. The suit alleges that the workers who lost their jobs when the two papers closed were terminated illegally; the lawyer who filed the suit is seeking class-action certification.
A plaintiff who alleges the Observer wrongfully disclosed his HIV-positive status has sued the Dallas alt-weekly; its parent company, New Times; and other parties, Texas Lawyer reports. In "Fallen Angel," an article published last December, the Observer referenced the man by name. The plaintiff doesn't dispute that he's HIV-positive but contends that the paper didn't have the right to disclose his condition without his consent. By doing so, he claims, the paper violated the Texas Health and Safety Code. Miriam Rozen writes: "Most attorneys have assumed the statute applied to parties in the medical and insurance industries -- not media organizations." Three of the defendants are seeking the outright dismissal of the plaintiff's petition.
