"Just about every print publication in America is in hunker-down mode nowadays, trying to hang on and ride out the recession," News & Observer music critic David Menconi writes. "It takes real courage to launch anything bold and expensive in an environment like this, and The Independent Weekly is launching something that's plenty ambitious this fall: a music festival featuring around 120 bands playing in 10 venues around downtown Raleigh." The festival, dubbed Hopscotch, is scheduled for Sept. 9-11. Look for an official launch of the festival's website, some preliminary band announcements and the beginning of ticket sales in mid-February.

Continue ReadingThe Independent Weekly Launching Three-Day Music Festival This Fall

"I wore a suit at my wedding, and between 1993 and 1994 I wore a suit at work," Colorado Springs Independent publisher John Weiss says in a Colorado Springs Business Journal piece about -- you guessed it -- suits. "I was trying to fit in and be legitimate ... But then I realized that the whole point of being the publisher of an alternative weekly was that you didn't have to wear a suit."

Continue ReadingA Perk of Publishing an Alt-Weekly: No Suit Required

The Independent's senior editor Matt Kettmann is a co-founder of New Noise Santa Barbara, a music conference and festival that debuted Oct. 8-10 at venues throughout downtown Santa Barbara. "We're telling locals that it's like the wildly popular Santa Barbara International Film Fest, but with music," says Kettmann, the paper's former pop culture editor who more recently directed the editorial development of Independent.com. "And we're telling everyone else that it's like South By Southwest, but much smaller and on the coast." The Independent served as an official media sponsor and published the conference's program guide.

Continue ReadingSanta Barbara Independent Staffer Helps Launch Music Festival

A judge has dismissed former Stanford Group Company vice president Tiffany Angelle's defamation claim against the Lafayette, La., paper. Angelle had sued the Independent over a story that reported she had given a reluctant investor a Rolex watch and a lavish trip to keep his money in Stanford, which was shut down earlier this year by the Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly perpetrating an $8 billion investment scam. In making his ruling, the judge noted that Independent editorial director Leslie Turk, who was also named in the suit, "reasonably relied on a confidential informant whom she believed to be telling the truth and confirmed the accuracy of the source's statement by making a second call to [the confidential source]."

Continue ReadingJudge Dismisses Defamation Suit Against The Independent Weekly

The alt-weekly Colorado Springs Independent has joined with the daily Colorado Springs Gazette to publish tandem endorsements regarding two upcoming ballot questions. "We have set aside our differences to graphically illustrate how important it is for citizens to vote this fall to ensure the short- and long-term health of the city we call home," Independent publisher John Weiss says. "Join with us to help save our city from a terrible -- yet still avoidable -- fate."

Continue ReadingCompeting Colorado Springs Papers Band Together for Endorsements