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In a Feb. 1 editor's note, the Bay Guardian's executive editor responded to Craig Newmark's AAN West keynote by arguing that the Craigslist founder's "building community" rap is "bullshit," and that his creation is the online-classifieds equivalent of Wal-Mart. The blogospere responded quickly. Tech exec Anil Dash says he lost his job at the Village Voice when the paper's classified revenue was decimated by Craigslist: "I am exactly the person Redmond is ostensibly arguing on behalf of, and so I can say with certainty that he's profoundly wrong," writes Dash. At BuzzMachine, Jeff Jarvis calls Redmond's editorial "jealous whining," then seizes on his example of Burlington, Vt., as a community where Craigslist's arrival could hurt locally-owned media. After doing a quick once-over on Seven Days' Web site, Jarvis declares the Burlington alt-weekly insufficiently digital, which leads to comments from Seven Days writer and blogger Cathy Resmer (who blogged about Redmond, too) and co-publisher and editor Paula Routly, who writes, "If we're behind Craig Newmark technologically, it's because we’ve been busting our asses for ten years trying to put out an excellent newspaper that serves, and reflects, this community." Click here to watch the blogosphere stomp on Redmond in real-time.

Continue ReadingBloggers Reject Tim Redmond’s Craigslist-is-Wal-Mart Argument

According to NBC-affiliate KSBY, some area residents were upset by the paper's Feb. 2 cover package on methamphetamine, which included a recipe for manufacturing the drug. After the paper hit the streets, one former meth user suggested that citizens should take matters into their own hands: "Everybody should just get [copies of the paper] and burn them. It's just ridiculous." The next day, KSBY reported that "angry readers, recovering addicts, police, and drug counselors" were removing papers from the streets and pressuring store managers to do the same. Andrew Carter of Cellular One, which spends $52,000 annually advertising on the back cover of the New Times, said, "As the lead advertiser in the publication, they've not only, in my mind, embarrassed themselves, but they've embarrassed us." SLO New Times Managing Editor King Harris noted that "instructions for making meth are readily available on the Internet" and said the paper's intention was to inform people, "especially worried parents, about what to look for and what to consider suspicious."

Continue ReadingSLO New Times Meth Story Sparks Controversy
Read more about the article Porn and Counter-Porn

In the Jan. 26 issue of New Haven Advocate, three writers engage in a debate on alt-weeklies' connection to pornography. In "Porn Free," Carole Bass questions why alt-weeklies "reflexively pimp for porn." Ryan Kearney and Tom Gogola provide counterpoints in "Porn Goes Public" and "Slings and Eros."

Continue ReadingPorn and Counter-Porn

The new CEO of Village Voice Media announced Tuesday that Michael Cohen has been named publisher of the chain's flagship paper. In an e-mail message to Village Voice staffers, Larkin said that Cohen resigned his current position as publisher of Miami New Times and will take the helm at the Voice on Monday Jan. 30. Cohen, who has been in the alternative-weekly publishing business for 22 years, began his career in ad sales at the Baltimore City Paper in 1983 and moved to New York five years later to help launch the New York Press as its ad director. He returned to New York in 2000 to serve briefly as publisher of the Press; he also served stints as publisher of AAN member papers Fairfield County Weekly and Philadelphia Weekly. In a separate e-mail to the Voice staff, Judy Miszner announced that Tuesday was her last day as the paper's publisher. "I thank all of you for making these the 7 best years of my career," she wrote.

Continue ReadingJim Larkin Names New Publisher at Village Voice