Martinez will replace Kirk Woundy, who announced his departure in January.
Tess Martinez died Monday in a car accident in New Mexico. She was 25 years old. Martinez was one of 10 Academy for Alternative Journalism fellows in 2008 and a former Tucson Weekly intern. The Weekly reports that she was on her way to the Chicago area to look for work when the accident happened. Her Twitter page lists her last message -- sent at 3:44 pm on Saturday -- as: "driving to Chicago tonight."
Former Rocky Mountain Chronicle and Colorado Springs Independent editor Vanessa Martinez was eating lunch on Monday in Denver when a thief made off with her bag, which included cash, credit cards and her ID, which she needed to get into DNC events. After she called her credit card company and found out the guy was already on a spending spree nearby, she headed to the Virgin Megastore where he'd just bought some items. Before she got there, though, she ran into him on the street. "The poor guy couldn't have seen it coming," Westword's Joel Warner writes. "Biff! Bam! Kapow! Martinez punched him in the face, walloped him with his own shopping bag and tore at his shirt. He pulled out her stolen credit cards in surrender, but that didn't stop the fury." The pickpocket was taken into custody, and Martinez got her stuff back shortly after the scuffle. In other DNC-related news, check out this blog post, in which Westword writer Jason Sheehan's takes New York Post columnist Cindy Adams to task for her boneheaded comments about Denver.
Five papers are duking it out in the 128,000-population Northern Colorado town, and two of them have an alt-weekly pedigree, Westword reports. The Rocky Mountain Chronicle debuted in October, arising from the ashes of former AAN member Rocky Mountain Bullhorn, and the mostly direct-mailed Fort Collins Weekly launched in early 2003, with Boulder Weekly alum Greg Campbell and Joel Dyer at the helm. The other three are faux-alts, including one owned by Gannett's Coloradan, which Campbell calls "one of the weakest, worst daily newspapers I've ever come across." Chronicle Editor Vanessa Martinez (pictured) predicts they won't all survive. "I think some of them are going to fall by the wayside," she says.
Colorado Springs Independent Managing Editor Vanessa Martinez is leaving the paper to help launch the Rocky Mountain Chronicle, an alternative newsweekly scheduled to debut in Fort Collins this October. With her departure, the Independent seeks to fill "one of the most important, challenging and fun jobs in the Pikes Peak region: editor of Colorado's second-largest locally owned media enterprise." Because the paper is hoping to find a new editor with local ties, it is turning to its readership for suggestions. As incentive, the individual "who persuades the right candidate to apply" will be given $1,000. Application information is available on csindy.com.
Bullhorn Publisher Joseph Rouse announced yesterday that the newspaper's Feb. 2 issue had been its last, according to the Coloradoan. Rouse said negotiations to merge with another alt-weekly had been underway but ended abruptly on Wednesday. The Bullhorn was founded as a monthly in 2000 by Rouse and former editor Vanessa Martinez, then both 22. The newspaper was relaunched with a weekly format in 2003 and was awarded AAN membership in 2004.
