Kamikaze was suspended indefinitely from the local talk radio program the Kim Wade Show this week for comments he made in a recent Jackson Free Press column, the paper reports. "Freedom of speech no longer exists in this country," Kamikaze says. "I don't know if I'm being singled out but its unfortunate that the station caved to some random callers who disagreed with my viewpoints." As a rebuttal, Kamikaze, who is also a hip-hop artist, has recorded a new song, "Take Me Away," which he calls an "open letter" to George W. Bush. It was posted on his MySpace page today.
Todd Spivak's "Run Over by Metro" took first place in Clarion Awards' Newspaper Feature Story category, the same category in which he finished first last year. Both men and women are eligible for the Clarion Awards, which are presented by The Association for Women in Communications.
When the New York Press was sold to Manhattan Media in early August, the new CEO announced the paper would stop running "explicit" ads. The National Organization for Women and some op-ed writers took that opportunity to put more pressure on the Voice and New York magazine to also stop running the ads. The Voice "fired back by defiantly running eight naked ladies on the cover" a few weeks ago, the New York Observer reports. Editor Tony Ortega tells the Observer that the cheeky cover was his idea. "The subject of our adult ads has been brought up lately in the local press," Ortega says. "I thought the best response from the newsroom was to poke some fun at ourselves." Manhattan Media CEO Tom Allon tells the Observer that, while he thinks "the punchline was only clear to a small sliver of their readership," he's glad to have stirred up the attention. "Clearly it was a nod to us and to our decision," he says. "I was flattered that they thought that a decision we made warranted a Voice cover."
Manhattan Media has named Blum editor-in-chief of New York Press as well as editorial director of the company's community newspaper group, the New York Times reports. When he starts the job Sept. 5, Blum's first task "will be to compete more vigorously with The Voice," where he served as editor for six months ending this March. "I want to make The Press as fresh and unpredictable as possible," he says. "I tried to do that at The Village Voice, but I didn't have enough time at The Voice to achieve the goals that I had at the paper. But here I will." In his interview with the Times, Blum also takes the opportunity to take a shot at his new competition and former employer for its out-of-town ownership. "I am excited to be working with a publisher and an owner who lives in New York, who knows the city extremely well," he says. "I think that will be a big plus for The Press -- and for me."
New owners Manhattan Media told the New York Observer last week that the Press would no longer accept "explicit" advertising, and the decision is being praised by the local chapter of the National Organization for Women, the New York Times reports. "[Manhattan Media CEO] Tom Allon is a trailblazer," Sonia Ossorio, president of NOW in New York City, says in a press release. "He sees the future of the newsprint business, and that future isn't reliant on the fast, cheap money of the prostitution industry." Believing that adult ads foster human trafficking, NOW's New York City chapter is asking publications to stop running the ads and sign an antitrafficking pledge called "Trafficking Free, NYC!" (Manhattan Media has signed on). The Times says the Village Voice hadn't yet returned calls for comment on the pledge.
In an interview with the New York Observer, Manhattan Media president and CEO Tom Allon says his new paper will no longer accept any "explicit" advertising. "We're probably kissing away about a million dollars a year in revenue," Allon says. "We're not making a moral or puritanical decision. We just believe in the long term, it's not best for the publication." Allon also announced that the Press's weekly circulation will be cut by approximately 50 percent, to 50,000, and that a Brooklyn edition of the paper will be introduced after Labor Day. He also tells the Observer that The Press will now be classified as an "independent" paper. "I've told all the people in the office that 'alternative' is a four letter word," he says, dubbing it "very '70's."
The Denver-based Avalon Equity Fund sold the 20-year-old alt-weekly to Manhattan Media, owner of five neighborhood weeklies and other Manhattan-focused publications. The company plans to merge the Press with Our Town Downtown, a weekly paper started last year that circulates in Lower Manhattan, according to the New York Times. In the company's press release, Tom Allon, president and CEO of Manhattan Media, says: "At its best, The New York Press has been one of the most distinctive community publications in this city. ... It was a leader in blogging before the word was even used -- distinctive perspectives, opinions, reporting and reviews. While New York City has changed dramatically in the nearly twenty years since Russ Smith founded the Press, the need for independent voices and real community news and views hasn't."
Richard Connelly was honored in the Humor (under 100,000 circulation) category by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Winners were announced Saturday night.
Bingo Barnes will take over as publisher of the free weekly paper "almost immediately," Boise Weekly reports. "It's a good paper, and there is room for improvement," Barnes says. The Press was bought last year by Wick Communications, which also owns AAN member Tucson Weekly. Barnes, who was at Boise Weekly for about five years, also served on AAN's Board of Directors from 2005 to 2006.
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