In response to complaints, Provo's city library stopped carrying Salt Lake City Weekly. Now, in response to complaints about the paper's disappearance, the library is reconsidering its previous decision, reports the Associated Press (via Editor & Publisher). SLC Weekly Editor Ben Fulton tells the AP: "We would hope they would still carry our paper for the reading public that is interested in what we have to offer." But, he concedes, "In a county where Rodin sculptures can cause offense, one person's ceiling is another person's floor."
Hartford Advocate Editor Alistair Highet calls the listings calendar his paper's "universal point of interest." The calendar is -- and long has been -- indispensable for most alt-weeklies, attracting readers who don't necessarily agree with a paper's perceived political stance. But the marketplace is increasingly crowded with online and print publications listing concerts and theater times. Freelance reporter Charlie Deitch speaks with AAN members to find out what they're doing to fend off competitors' attempts to infringe on the alts' longtime stronghold.
Alt-weeklies may have to stop branding themselves as the papers unafraid to print the word "fuck." Editor Ben Fulton says Salt Lake City Weekly was briefly kicked out of Wal-Mart "because we used the f-bomb in our paper," Glen Warchol reports in The Salt Lake Tribune. City Weekly lost a week's distribution at the chain after a self-identified Christian stumbled upon the word in its pages and complained to the store's regional managers. Wal-Mart let the paper return based on promises of increased vigilance about the use of profanity.
After working at the paper for over a decade and filling in as interim editor on three separate occasions, the veteran Admissions Committee member is named to replace John Yewell. There are two Ben Fultons, says Publisher John Saltas: The one who "has a special rapport with budding writers and the respect of veteran wordsmiths," and the "worry-wort" who "is consumed with the curse of being only nearly perfect."
Two days after reporting that "the paper's freelance writers heaved a sigh of relief" when Salt Lake City Weekly Editor John Yewell was fired, Elaine Jarvik of Deseret News is back to report that her earlier story "prompted other free-lancers to weigh in with praise for their former editor as thorough, honest and hard-hitting." Despite the dueling free-lancers, staff members at City Weekly still chose to remain silent for the record.
John Yewell (pictured) was fired last month for unspecified reasons and replaced for the interim by Managing Editor Ben Fulton. "I'll be carefully vague ... there were differences," Publisher John Saltas tells the Deseret News. According to the daily, "Some of the paper's freelance writers heaved a sigh of relief on hearing the news that Yewell was let go." Before taking the position in Salt Lake City, Yewell had been fired as editor of Independent Weekly.
Jim Rizzi has been named vice president of sales and marketing for Salt Lake City Weekly, Publisher John Saltas announced today. Rizzi has had a 20-year career with New Times Inc., most recently as publisher of New Times Los Angeles.
