Philadelphia City Paper today announced the details of the evening festivities at this year's AAN Convention, and, as always, there will be plenty to ingest, imbibe and experience as attendees catch up with their AAN colleagues. From the opening night "Get on Board the Love Train" reception, featuring food from some of Philly's most well-regarded restaurants, to a closing night party across the street from where the U.S. Constitution was drafted, City Paper has our party needs covered. Other events include a restaurant and pub crawl through the hip environs of an historic neighborhood known as Northern Liberties, and a Saturday afterparty for about 75 attendees at The Roots Family Picnic. More afterparties are in the works -- be sure to check the Convention website for details.
This Friday, May 9, is the deadline for early registration for the 31st Annual AAN Convention, June 5-7 in Philadelphia. Early rates are $295 per person for members, and $425 per person for non-members, and each will increase by $50 per person after this Friday's deadline. Registration is available via the Convention website. Next Friday, May 16, is the deadline to book a room at the special AAN rate of $169 single or double occupancy at the Marriott. Hotel rooms can also be booked online. Remember that the hotel could sell out before May 16, so book your room(s) as soon as possible. In addition, this Friday is the deadline for trade show exhibitors to receive a confirmed listing in the convention program. If you have any questions about your listing, or the trade show in general, please contact Debra Silvestrin at debra (at) aan.org or 202-289-8484.
The reports provide background information on the companies and individuals who hold ownership stakes in the 12 papers that have applied for AAN membership in 2008; they are now available in the Resource Library. The Membership Committee is meeting this weekend in Washington, D.C., to discuss the applicants, and will issue its recommendations prior to the Annual Meeting, which will be held on Saturday, June 7 at the AAN Convention. The applying papers must be approved by two-thirds of the members voting in order to be accepted into the association.
The confidential survey (click here for PDF copy) covers a broad range of topics, including financial info, web traffic, staffing, software, marketing, email newsletters, blogs and multimedia. It was emailed to AAN publishers today. The results will be compiled by AAN staff; Jackson Free Press' Todd Stauffer will analyze the results and present the findings in a closed session at the AAN Convention in Philadelphia. Only those papers that substantially complete the survey by the close-of-business on May 12 will receive a copy of the results and be allowed to attend Stauffer's presentation at the convention.
At the annual meeting in Portland last year, AAN members approved a budget that eliminated funding for the regional staff training conferences that had been held annually in San Francisco and Washington D.C., AAN Board president Stephen Leon explains in a memo mailed to publishers this week (and available in the Resource Library). In lieu of the conferences, the Board allocated a sum of money to "regional staff training," without specifying dates or locations. The idea was that individual publishers, or small groups of publishers, could submit conference proposals to AAN to apply for "grant" money from the budget. This year's AAN West conference was the first conference organized under the program; in a document that was attached to Leon's memo, the organizers share their "formula for success."
The Austin Chronicle's advertising director -- and AAN Retail Advertising Committee chair -- says she's leaving the paper in the first week of July. Flagg plans to move back home to Phoenix to start a new company that provides consulting services. She will step down from her position on the AAN Board of Directors following the board's meeting in June in Philadelphia. Her departure means someone will be elected at the convention to serve the one year remaining in her term as retail ad chair.
This year's AAN Convention heads back to the East Coast -- Philadelphia, to be exact. The Declaration of IndependAANts, the association's 31st annual convention, will be hosted by the Philadelphia City Paper from June 5-7 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. As always, AAN has lined up a mix of special speakers, brass-tacks programming, and plenty of food, drink and revelry. New Yorker reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh (pictured) is the featured speaker at Friday's First Amendment Lunch, while OC Weekly staffer and "Ask a Mexican!" columnist Gustavo Arellano will host Saturday's AltWeekly Awards Lunch. The convention website -- where you'll find registration information, event schedules, and programming details -- is now live and accepting registrations. Be sure to register before May 2 to get discounted rates.
Rick Mundy has joined the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies as director of sales and marketing. He has a more than a decade of experience in newspapers, in sales, marketing, and publishing at various community newspapers, and also as federation manager at the Newspaper Association of America. Mundy's immediate focus will be on revitalizing the AAN CAN classified program. His first day on staff was March 4.
This year's AAN West conference went very well, according to the results of a post-conference survey. A total of 273 people attended the meeting, which was held last month in San Francisco, and 98 percent of the survey respondents agreed that the conference was an overall success. A summary of the survey results has been posted in the Resource Library.
This year's crop of applying newspapers hail from 10 U.S. states and one Canadian province, and seven of them have previously applied for membership. AAN's Membership Committee will review the papers over the next several months and will discuss their findings when the committee meets in Washington, D.C. on May 3. The committee will then issue its recommendations regarding each application prior to the Annual Meeting, which will take place in Philadelphia on June 7, the last day of the annual AAN convention. The 12 applying papers must be approved by two-thirds of the members voting at the meeting in order to join AAN. In addition, as we reported in December, the status of five current member papers will be reviewed this year.
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