Blood. Frogs. Vermin. Hail. Locusts. Slaying of your first editor. Whatever. If you publish a paper long enough, sooner or later you will be hit with a disaster. With eleven papers to worry about, the folks at New Times are always thinking about these things, and they have agreed to share their disaster-recovery plans with business-stream attendees on Saturday, June 18 at 4:45 pm.

Continue ReadingEmergency Preparedness Seminar Added in Business Stream

Bob Norman of New Times Broward-Palm Beach and Bruce Rushton of Phoenix New Times were named today as finalists in the 2005 Gerald Loeb Awards contest. Norman and Rushton received two of the four nominations in the small-newspapers category, which includes papers with circulation under 150,000. The Loeb Awards, which recognize superior business journalism, have been presented by UCLA's Anderson School of Management since 1973.

Continue ReadingNew Times Reporters Named Finalists for Loeb Awards

In an article in this week's edition of SF Weekly, Editor John Mecklin suggests that the San Francisco Bay Guardian is facing financial problems brought about largely from the purchase of a new office building, and that these problems might be behind the Bay Guardian's suit against SF Weekly, East Bay Express and New Times, Inc. In order to counter the suit's claim that New Times' Bay Area papers are discounting ads below cost, Mecklin offers accounts of the Guardian engaging in those very practices.

Continue ReadingSF Weekly Attributes Lawsuit to Bay Guardian Miscues

The San Francisco Bay Guardian filed a lawsuit in the city's Superior Court against SF Weekly, East Bay Express and New Times Media, LLC, which owns the two weeklies. The suit alleges that New Times repeatedly sold ads at less than the cost of producing them and offered secret deals to advertisers to keep them from advertising in the Bay Guardian. Both activities would violate California law. New Times owns 11 alternative papers, all of which, like the Bay Guardian, are members of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies.

Continue ReadingBay Guardian Sues New Times for Predatory Pricing

The recipients of this year's National Association of Black Journalists Awards were announced Oct. 9 in Washington, D.C. New Times writers fared impressively, winning nine of the 22 awards handed out to newspapers with a circulation of 150,000 or less. Dallas Observer, Cleveland Scene, Phoenix New Times and New Times Broward-Palm Beach each had writers take home awards, while Riverfront Times writers won four awards -- including a clean sweep of the business category by Randall Roberts and Mike Seely. According to the NABJ, the awards recognize "outstanding coverage of people or important issues in the African diaspora."

Continue ReadingNew Times Writers Dominate NABJ Awards

At least five L.A. Weekly senior editorial and art department employees -- including veteran education reporter Howard Blume -- have filed grievances with management via the International Association of Machinists, the paper's bargaining unit, reports L.A. Alternative Press. Most are alleging that they're being pushed out of their jobs without adequate union process as specified in their contracts and only because they make some of the paper's top union salaries. These charges come on the heels of the September ouster of several veteran employees at The Village Voice, which, like L.A. Weekly, is owned by Village Voice Media.

Continue ReadingL.A. Weekly Employees File Grievance Through Union