The state press association honored City Paper for overall excellence, and awarded it first place in three additional categories.
Jeffery C. Billman's declaration that The Roots "are fucking awesome" made its way into an email blast promoting a rally for President Obama.
The Keystone Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists has announced the winners of its annual journalism contest, and Philadelphia Weekly took home six awards, including a first-place win in the "Feature, Non-Daily" category (which it swept).
Longtime PW staffer and well-regarded mental health columnist and blogger Liz Spikol has left the paper. Philip Dawdy reports that Spikol will return to blogging at some point, but is currently taking a bit of a break. Her departure comes on the heels of recently reported layoffs, pay cuts and furloughs at the paper, moves addressed by PW parent company Review Publishing's president and chief operating officer in a statement given to AAN News. "Like most organizations, we needed to take proactive and hopefully temporary measures to preserve as many jobs as possible while best positioning the organization for long term growth," George Troyano writes. "We remain very optimistic about the future and will continue to invest in new initiatives and technologies. We will maintain a strategic and creative approach to best maneuver through these challenging times."
Steven Wells died of cancer on Tuesday. Since being diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2006, he had written two stirring cover stories about his fight with the disease for the Weekly. He penned his final column -- a sort of obituary -- on June 14. Prior to his work at the Weekly, Wells was well known as a music journalist for NME and other outlets.
The Weekly won 11 Keystone Press Awards this year, including first place finishes in the Column, Feature Photo, General News and Personality Profile categories.
McGinnis, who is management information systems (MIS) director for PW parent company Review Publishing, says they started sketching out the new site at the end of 2007. The Weekly unveiled the redesign early last month. "From a design perspective, it was about making [the site] look more pleasing," he says. "From a traffic perspective it was about decreasing bounce rate and increasing time on site."
Tim Gough talks to the design blog Grain Edit about how he balances his day job at the Weekly with his freelance illustration work, how he became interested in design and illustration, and his creative process. "I start off with a tiny, sloppy sketch and blow that up via computer or Xerox," he says. "I work off the original sketch for the most part, but clean it up and add some textures. I try to keep the looseness and energy of the original sketch."
