The Scene's display advertising director Ginny Staggs has accepted the position of advertising director at The City Paper, a free Nashville daily. Staggs will be reunited with former Scene publisher and co-owner Albie Del Favero, who is publisher of The City Paper. "I had the good fortune of being able to hire her when I was running the Nashville Scene, so I guess now I could say good fortune strikes again," Del Favero says.
Nashville City Council members Mike Jameson and Ludye Wallace have introduced a bill that would require publishers to get a permit for news boxes that encroach on any public right-of-way, the Scene reports. A permit would initially cost $50 for a freestanding box and $10 for a spot in a newsrack, and require an annual renewal fee of $10. The ordinance would also give the director of Public Works the authority to adopt further rules which could dictate placement, maximum number of boxes within a given area or maintenance standards, according to the alt-weekly. Publisher and former Council member Chris Ferrell "has been working his Council contacts to derail [the] bill," which Mayor Bill Purcell also opposes, the Scene reports.
Robert Chavez's 90-day suspension from his post as president of the Tennessee Hispanic Chamber of Commerce "will become a permanent termination" at the next meeting of the chamber's board, the Scene reports. Chavez was suspended just two weeks ago, following a Scene article detailing his "nefarious business activities and poor chamber leadership." The Nashville alt-weekly also reports that Chavez has lost his attorney, Delain L. Deatherage, who had represented him since at least November.
Prominent Hispanic businessman Robert Chavez has been suspended as president of the Tennessee Hispanic Chamber of Commerce for 90 days as a result of the alt-weekly's cover story detailing his "nefarious business activities and poor chamber leadership," according to NashvillePost.com, a website covering Nashville business and politics. One of the chamber's board members, Miguel Torres, tells the Scene: "You did a good thing for the Hispanic community ... without your article, we would never have known the true Chavez."
Music City Mayor Bill Purcell announced last week that he has hired Liz Garrigan's husband Curt as his number two, a post he will fill for eight months. To avoid conflict of interest, Liz Garrigan says in an editor's note that she will recuse herself of all writing and editing duties involving stories "dealing specifically with Purcell, my husband or the mayor's office." She will not shy away from city politics altogether, however, and will continue to weigh in on subjects such as "the upcoming mayor's race, pieces about development and growth, [and] the Metro Council." MORE SCENE NEWS: Former staffer Jeff Woods will rejoin the paper after a stint as an editor for Scripps Howard News Service. Woods, says Garrigan, "will be covering pretty much whatever he damn well wants."
Mayoral hopeful Buck Dozier wants to create a $1 billion endowment to generate $75 million in interest that would be funneled directly to the city's schools, an idea first floated in an old Nashville Scene column written by the paper's former editor and co-owner, Bruce Dobie. "If this city can raise enough money to build a symphony hall," asks the daily Tennessean in an editorial promoting Dobie/Dozier's idea, "why can't the same be done for public schools?"
Call it Tennessee Idol -- contestants this week will compete at Nashville's newest White Castle hamburger restaurant for a 12-hour recording session at the city's East Iris Studios. The event, billed "Slyder Superstar," is being cross-promoted on cable TV and radio, and in print ads and podcasts in Nashville's alt-weekly, according to a company release.
As part of the Nashville Scene's August 24 "College Survival Guide," Music Listings Editor Dave Rudolph recounts his experience getting a job at the alt-weekly after graduating from college. The tale begins with a coffee shop encounter with former Scene editor Bruce Dobie, and ends with Rudolph drunk-dialing the current editor, Liz Garrigan, at 2:30 a.m. "It's a story that’s both convoluted and simple, like a drunken conversation among friends. I can't help it if I'm lucky," Rudolph writes.
