Minnesota's Secretary of State, Mary Kiffmeyer, sent a letter to City Pages on Monday, warning the paper that its "I Will Vote" promotion might violate federal law prohibiting the payment or acceptance of payment for voting or registering to vote, reports the Minneapolis Star Tribune. At a City Pages booth at summer events, young voters were encouraged to register to vote and promise to turn out on election day as well as to sign up for a chance to win a free overseas trip. Kiffmeyer says her letter was prompted by David Strom, president of the Taxpayers League in Minnesota and City Pages' "Villain of the Year" for 2004, who issued a news release last week urging her to intervene.
The satirical weekly will start circulating a free print edition in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, on Sept. 2. In addition to carrying stories published on its Web site, The Onion will print local reviews and calendar listings, the same type of content for which City Pages, an AAN member in the same market, is known. The Onion president Sean Mills claims that readers of the humor paper are significantly younger than readers of alternative weeklies. According to the Star Tribune, The Onion is looking next to start papers in San Francisco, Boston and Austin, Texas.
"Twin Cities Babelogue" has turned more than 20 writers, editors and freelancers loose on the paper's Web site to talk about anything they want, any way they want. The experiment is paying off so far, with 10 percent of all Web site visitors now checking out the Babelogue during their time on the site. "I figured it was going to be a waste of time and lobbied openly against it," Senior Editor Brad Zellar tells AAN News. "Turns out, however, that I've taken to it."
New Times writers swept the Newspaper Restaurant Review or Critique category of the 2003 James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards with Jason Sheehan of Westword winning, while Jill Posey-Smith of Riverfront Times and Robb Walsh of Houston Press were finalists. Mark Stuertz of the Dallas Observer was the winner in the Newspaper, Magazine or Internet Reporting on Consumer Issues, Nutrition and/or Health category for his article “Green Giant." Dara Moskowitz, City Pages (Twin Cities) and Walsh were finalists in the newspaper series category.
A state appeals court has sided with City Pages (Twin Cities) in its attempt to force the state and Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Minnesota to reveal how much they paid a high-powered law firm for its work on the state's lawsuit against the tobacco industry. "We saw the lawsuit as a golden opportunity to remind our elected officials and their powerful friends that to be healthy, a democracy must be watched over by a free, independent, and vigorous press," the paper says in an unsigned editorial.
“This book, I hope, is a book of encounters, none of them predictable,” novelist and music writer Jonathan Lethem writes in his introduction to “Da Capo Best Music Writing 2002.” Seven of the 28 articles in the collection were originally published in alternative newsweeklies, including The Village Voice, Chicago Reader and City Pages (Twin Cities).
Steve Perry, a former editor of City Pages (Twin Cities), will return to his old job, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. Perry has been writing for The Rake, a new monthly started by Tom Bartel, brother of City Pages Publisher Mark Bartel. Perry replaces Tom Finkel, who was fired in July. Perry is the second former editor restored at a Village Voice Media paper this week, following Skip Berger's return to Seattle Weekly.
Publisher Mark Bartel of City Pages (Twin Cities) has fired Editor Tom Finkel because they disagreed on whether the paper should change direction, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. Finkel came to City Pages in 1997 from Miami New Times. "I don't want to play this like Tom and I have been butting heads for 4 1/2 years; I really like Tom," Bartel tells the daily. "I just felt like I wanted the editorial to take more chances, to be edgier."
The Minneapolis Star Tribune profiles brothers Tom and Mark Bartel, now operating competing publications, AAN-member City Pages (Twin Cities) and a new monthly, the Rake. Mark Bartel, publisher of City Pages, now seems secure out from the shadow of his older brother, reports Jon Tevlin. Tom Bartel and his wife and partner Kris Henning, are in their element spinning a new publication into existence.
Four writers at AAN newspapers have won awards in the 2001 National Awards for Education Reporting from the Education Writers Association. They are: Nigel Jaquiss, Willamette Week, first prize in investigative reporting for "The Poisoning of Whitaker"; Margaret Downing, Houston Press, first prize in opinion writing for "But Who's Counting"; Emily Bliss, New Times Broward-Palm Beach, second prize in feature writing for " A Scout for Life"; Mike Mosedale, City Pages (Minneapolis/St. Paul), special citation for "Take Till It Hurts."
