Traffic to David Cay Johnston's piece on tax myths, which ran in 40 alt-weeklies last week, caused Willamette Week's website to crash for about three hours Monday.
Brent Walth, who shared in a Pulitzer Prize for public service reporting while at The Oregonian, has been named Willamette Week's news editor. He replaces Hank Stern, who is leaving the paper to work for the county.
With taxes on the minds of most Americans, the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (AAN) member papers are doing what they do best: providing an antidote to the myths that the mainstream media, local television news and politicians perpetuate about tax policy.
Joe Tone has been tapped as editor of the Dallas Observer, where he will replace Mark Donald. Tone was most recently the editor of The Pitch in Kansas City.
City Pages (Twin Cities) publisher Mark Bartel has departed after twenty-nine years with the Minneapolis-based publication, thirteen of those were as publisher.
Seattle Weekly editor-in-chief Mark D. Fefer has departed and is being replaced by managing editor Mike Seely.
Seattle Weekly editor Mark Fefer says the SF Weekly / SFBG case has far-reaching implications.
After nearly 14 years apart, the Alternative Weekly Network (AWN) and the Sacramento News & Review are once again sharing office space, as AWN has moved into the News & Review's new green building. "We are returning to where it all began," AWN executive director Mark Hanzlik says. Hanzlik adds that in addition to the physical move, the company is currently retooling the AWN website, and upgrading some of the operational processes of the cooperative.
Small Society, the company whose work on iPhone applications for the Obama campaign, Whole Foods and Zipcar has earned wide recognition and praise in the growing app development field, is partnering with Pre1 Software and the parent company of Willamette Week and Santa Fe Reporter to develop an iPhone publishing platform which they hope to make available to AAN publishers by late 2009. "We think this may be the killer app for alt weeklies," Willamette Week editor Mark Zusman says.
In his announcement yesterday about starting his own weekly internet TV show, the independent U.S. Senator from Vermont bemoaned media consolidation. Unfortunately, he also unfairly characterized alt-weeklies, claiming they "have been bought by a monopoly franchise and made a predictable shift to the right in their coverage of local news." In a letter responding to the Senator's claim, AAN president Mark Zusman and executive director Richard Karpel set the record straight, noting the absurdity of calling any alt-weekly a "monopoly franchise" and stating that "alternative newspapers across North America are still often among the few publications in their communities that consistently offer a progressive viewpoint on issues like poverty, racism, health-care reform and environmental sustainability."
