Editor Pamela White penned a 5,175-word article for the Feb. 2 issue of Boulder Weekly, detailing how an "expert" she had used was actually a fraud. David Race Bannon is the author of Race Against Evil, a supposed former Interpol assassin, and a source for the Weekly's Sept. 9, 2004 story "Suffer the Children" on the international child sex trade. On Jan. 27, Bannon was arrested by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation on suspicion of criminal impersonation, computer crime and criminal attempt to commit theft. White writes, "one quickly realizes that journalism, most especially alternative journalism, entails taking some risks. I don't say that to defend any lack of judgment on my part; it is quite simply a fact." Westword also included a short take on Boulder Weekly and Bannon in its Feb. 2 issue (here, second item).
The annual awards competition of the International Newspaper Marketing Association is divided into two broad genres: "Use of a Medium In Marketing Newspapers," which rewards creative use of various marketing media, and "Customers and Audiences," which rewards the overall effectiveness of multimedia campaigns. This year, the latter genre includes a new category, "Promotion of the Newspaper As An Advertising Medium," which is open to newspapers, advertising agencies, media buyers, and press associations. The contest deadline is Jan. 24; the awards will be presented at the INMA World Congress, from April 5-7, 2006 in Chicago.
The details of the out-of-court settlement are confidential, but it does include the terms on which Sutcliffe Associates' SelectAlternatives program will license Tele-Publishing Inc.'s patents and other intellectual property, the two companies announced yesterday. TPI and SA are both AAN Associate Members and both will continue to provide personal advertising technology to newspapers. "The settlement provides publishers with some choices going forward," says TPI President David Dinnage. "We feel that this is a win for all parties involved."
Tele-Publishing Inc. filed suit Sept. 22 in U.S. District Court in Arizona against Andrew B. Sutcliffe and his Tucson-based company, Sutcliffe Associates. Last year Sutcliffe, who was the founding president of TPI, launched a personals service, known as SelectAlternatives, that competes against the service of his former employer. TPI claims that Sutcliffe and five AAN papers that use SelectAlternatives infringed on four patents it owns, which Sutcliffe co-invented when he was TPI's president. The publishing companies that own the five AAN papers are named as co-defendants in the suit. Sutcliffe has issued a response saying that the suit is without merit, and he promises to mount a vigorous defense.
Match.com and People2People/Tele-Publishing International, two of the biggest operators in online and voice personals, are coming together to offer users "a robust pool of potential dates and romantic partners," the two companies announced in a joint news release today. P2P/TPI, owned by Phoenix Media Communications Group, is the largest provider of voice personals. Match.com is a global provider of Internet personals. The two together will now have more than 1,000 media clients and reach millions of singles searching for romance.
