The Phoenix was surprised to learn -- via a press release -- that the liner notes to Juliana Hatfield's new album Peace and Love were written by "Boston Phoenix music editor James Parker." Problem is, while Parker does contribute to the alt-weekly, he "spends most of his hours these days toiling for the Atlantic Monthly" and definitely is not the paper's music editor, Carly Carioli notes. "I was wondering why my chair felt a little tight," music editor Michael Brodeur says when asked about Parker's sudden promotion.
At a debate held in a local bar over the weekend, Seattle mayoral candidates Mike McGinn and Joe Mallahan were given one minute to answer each question, with the option of being granted a time extension ... if they took a shot of whiskey. Weekly managing editor and debate co-moderator Mike Seely tells KING 5 News that the forum was designed to get the candidates to show off their personalities instead of relying on the usual sound bites, and also to bring the race to a new audience. "We figure we had a captive audience that had about no interest in politics, and we figured we'd force feed them politics," Seely says.
Mike Menza, who had been at the L.A. Weekly for more than 19 years, died on Tuesday after battling cancer. "Menza led a tireless staff in one of publishing's crucial but little-known fields, one requiring physical stamina, intimate demographic intelligence and a head for quick calculation," the Weekly's Steven Mikulan writes. "Mike was our secret weapon," Weekly editor-in-chief Laurie Ochoa says. "One of the big reasons we're still alive and kicking, even [in] this economy, is Mike's genius at knowing exactly where we need to be on the streets -- and how to keep readers hungry for the paper."
Mike Seely's Seattle's Best Dive Bars: Drinking & Diving in the Emerald City "chronicles the nooks, crannies, and characters in over 100 bars within the Seattle city limits," he writes. "By and large, these places are the most distinctive, preservation-worthy bars in a city where watering holes of their ilk are swiftly disappearing. What they have in common isn't so much attributes, but a state of mind -- you just know one when you see one."
AAN members are once again well-represented in the list of nominees for this year's James Beard Foundation Awards for Journalism. The finalists: L.A. Weekly's Pulitzer-prize winning critic Jonathan Gold in the Restaurant Reviews; Kristen Hinman of Riverfront Times in Newspaper Feature Writing Without Recipes; and the Chicago Reader's Mike Sula in Multimedia Food Journalism. Winners will be announced at a May 4 gala in New York.
"Film critics and scholars have a tumultuous relationship with a system that is meant to help guide readers but may also encourage some to skip the review entirely," the Wall Street Journal reports in a story on the ubiquitous star system. Boston Phoenix critic Gerald Peary, who is also the director of an upcoming documentary on film criticism, tells the Journal that he's required to hand out stars -- but he doesn't like it. "The apple has been bitten by everybody, and it's a rotten apple," Peary says. But Las Vegas Weekly critic Mike D'Angelo says he likes the system, especially when approaching a film as a fan. "I prefer that critics use some sort of scale, personally, because I don't want to know much about a movie before seeing it," D'Angelo says.
Philadelphia Weekly and Seattle Weekly both finished first in two categories in this year's National Association of Black Journalists' Salute to Excellence National Media Awards. PW's Kia Gregory took first-place honors in Newspaper--Feature (Single Story) and Newspaper--Commentary, while Seattle Weekly's Mike Seely finished first in Newspaper--Sports and Brian Miller finished first in Newspaper-Business. Winners were announced Saturday in Chicago. This marks Seely's fourth award from the NABJ in the past five years, according to the Weekly.
Michael Brodeur, who replaces Matt Ashare, will start his tenure at the Phoenix on March 31. "Since Michael started writing for the Phoenix this past year, I have come to know him as someone who is tirelessly searching out new musical experiences, and someone who sees music as a vital place where pop culture defines itself," says Phoenix editor Lance Gould. Brodeur left the Dig in a Sept. 2007 restructuring.
"In the next six months, the Dig will look a lot different, and sound a lot different," Jeff Lawrence tells Boston magazine in the second of a two-part interview (the first part is here). Last week, after the Dig and editor Michael Brodeur parted ways, managing editor Shaula Clark and staff writer Julia Reischel both gave the paper notice. For now, Lawrence will take over as editor of the paper, but says he has no plans for making that a permanent position. He's also aware of the implications of such a move. "This publication is not going to turn into some advertorial piece of shit," Lawrence says. "Quite the contrary."
Executive editor Mike Lenehan (pictured) left Chicago Reader, Inc. on Aug. 30, and as a result he has stepped down from his position as Diversity Chair on the AAN Board of Directors. AAN president Stephen Leon appointed Jackson Free Press editor and current at-large board member Donna Ladd to serve the one year remaining in Lenehan's term as Diversity Chair, and appointed East Bay Express publisher Jody Colley to take Ladd's at-large seat for the one year remaining in her term. "I think I speak for everyone on the board in expressing our gratitude for Mike's service over the years," Leon says. "We're going to miss his dry wit, and also his common sense." Lenehan has served on the board since 2002 and was elected as the association's first Diversity Chair in 2004.
