Deputy editor Joe Piasecki was chosen last month for the Annenberg Fellowship at the University of Southern California, which requires two semesters of study in USC's graduate-level Specialized Journalism program and includes a $20,000 stipend. In addition, a number of Pasadena Weekly writers, along with scribes from sister papers LA CityBeat and Ventura County Weekly, have been been nominated for the Los Angeles Press Club's 51st Annual Southern California Journalism Awards. L.A. Weekly and OC Weekly also have a large number of nominees in the awards contest.
Joe Lance, who wrote the "Civic Forum" political column for Chattanooga's The Pulse until earlier this year, has entered the Tennessee city's 2009 mayoral race. "I have decided that the best way to encourage my fellow citizens to get involved in our local government is by asking them to allow me the honor of serving them as our next mayor," Lance says.
Joe Glisson, who has been New Times' political cartoonist for 25 years, is celebrating with a new retrospective book, Seems Like Old Times. "I had done the first book [1986's Dome Sweet Dome] a number of years ago, and I thought that I would like to have a companion to it," he says. "And this is the 25th year that I've been doing this, so I thought it was an appropriate time to do a retrospective. I don't know if anybody else feels that way, but I wanted to do it." Read more from Glisson in a Q&A posted at AltWeeklies.com.
Baltimore City Paper, Metro Times, Orlando Weekly and the San Antonio Current are as of today exclusively represented by Ruxton for national print advertising, according to a press release. The papers will join their newly-acquired sister paper, the Cleveland Scene, as part of the advertising network owned and operated by Village Voice Media. VVM chief operating officer Scott Tobias says the discussions about joining Ruxton began while VVM and Times-Shamrock were negotiating the sale of the Scene earlier this year. The addition of the four papers means Ruxton has a print presence in 50 American cities, including all of the top 20 markets, with a total weekly print circulation of more than 3.6 million.
"The idea, of course, is that with no competition to siphon off advertisers or keep ad prices rock-bottom, one alt-weekly might accomplish what the Free Times and Scene couldn't: make enough money to survive," Scene managing editor Joe Tone says of the recently announced merger. "And it's hard to bemoan the consolidation. Had they not become one, the two papers would have eventually become none." However, Tone notes that, for now, Cleveland "will lose some journalists." In addition to former editor Pete Kotz, who has already left for Nashville, Tone says staff writer Lisa Rab and food critic Elaine Cicora have departed. Frank Lewis, who last week was named the new paper's editor, reports on the Free Times blog that the other managers have been named. Sean Misutka and Joe Strailey have been plucked from the Scene to be ad sales manager and classified sales manager, respectively. And three additional Free Times managers have found homes at the new paper: Steve Antol is the circulation manager; Tim Divis is the business manager, and Steve Miluch is the production manager.
Deputy editor Joe Donnelly's position was cut by Village Voice Media, LA Observed reports. "I can tell you that Joe Donnelly was one of the reasons the L.A. Weekly has been so strong over the past few years," Weekly editor Laurie Ochoa says. "The good news is that Joe plans on doing a lot more writing, much of which we plan to publish. He's been the guiding force behind so many books through the years -- I think it's time he writes his own book." According to LA Observed, Donnelly will do just that -- he plans on writing a novel. Also, longtime copy editor Sheila Beaumont, who has worked at the paper for 26 years, has retired rather than make the commute to Culver City, where the Weekly is moving next week.
City Paper art director Joe MacLeod narrates a short video shot during the paper's recent party at G-Spot, a local art gallery displaying large blow-ups of pages and covers published during the last three decades by Baltimore's finest alt-weekly. "Each page is sort of like a piece of artwork," says MacLeod, who laments the fact that the "archetypal alt-weekly-style feature ... it has that certain look ... it's all kinda going away because of digital. ... That kind of classic alt-weekly look is disappearing." Not that he cares, of course.
With web archives getting more robust by the day, more sources are asking editors to change or delete old quotes and comments, Online Journalism Review reports. Reporter Elizabeth Zwerling talks to a few papers about how they've handled such requests, including the Pasadena Weekly, which in 2006 decided to remove the name of an ex-con from an archived story, six months after it came out in print. The story, on Crips co-founder Stanley Tookie Williams, featured quotes from a man who said he'd been in prison with Williams. The man had been charged with raping and sodomizing his former girlfriend, and convicted of assault -- information that was included in the story, along with the man's claims of innocence. "Our first reaction was 'no don't change it'," deputy editor Joe Piasecki says. "I tend to say that unless (the reporter) screwed up, don't change it." Piasecki, who was also the reporter for the story, says the paper made an exception in this case because the man wasn't familiar with the internet and his quotes weren't that important in the context of the story. The paper ultimately took the man's name out but kept the quotes in. "The guy said every time he applied for a job they Googled his name and this was the only hit," Piasecki says. "We took his name out so he could move on with his life."
Joe Piasecki's "Throwaway Kids" investigative series examining flaws in the foster care system was awarded the 2007 Price Child Health and Welfare Journalism Award by The Children's Advocacy Institute at the University of San Diego School of Law. "This outstanding series focuses much-needed attention on the dangers and pitfalls that await thousands of youth aging out of the foster care system each year," reads a notification letter from the institute.
Deputy Editor Joe Piasecki's five-part series on foster care and homeless youth, "Throwaway Kids," won a first-place award in the National Low Income Housing Coalition's first-ever Cushing Niles Dolbeare Media Awards, the group announced on Tuesday. Piasecki's series, the publication of which spanned over a month and 16,000 words, received the $2,500 prize in the Non-Daily Newspaper or Magazine category.
