An avalanche of remembrances, tributes, tall tales, and trivia from the staff of the Providence Phoenix.
Farewell issue to be distributed on October 16.
Facebook claims that Phoenix Media sites' search engines for band and restaurant listings violate its patents.
A Marine Corps veteran who has been struggling with mental-health issues has credited a story published in this week's Phoenix in Boston, Portland, and Providence with saving his life. Just hours after the story, "Soldiers Committing Suicide," hit the streets in Maine, the former Marine called the Portland office, thanking the paper for running the story and sharing his own ordeal of being out of meds he takes for his PTSD. Portland Phoenix managing editor Jeff Inglis recommended the vet contact a local counseling service, and the vet called again later saying he'd made the appointment. "You guys saved the life of a veteran," he said on a voicemail message. MORE: Read Inglis' account of the day here.
"I've been privileged to enjoy the alt-weekly journalist's brief of reporting and writing lengthy articles on the various topics, from the serious to the fanciful, appealing to the wide-ranging interests of Rhode Islanders," writes Ian Donnis. He is leaving the alt-weekly to become public radio station WRNI's political reporter.
As the Phoenix celebrates its 30th anniversary, Providence Business News looks at how the alt-weekly is flourishing "at a time when daily newspapers in Rhode Island and elsewhere are struggling." One University of Rhode Island professor says the paper provides a function "critical to political life in this state," and Phoenix associate publisher Steve Brown says the paper has succeeded by "knowing [its] audience and sticking with them." Ty Davis, who launched the paper (as The New Paper) in 1978, says he's not sorry that he sold his paper to the Boston Phoenix in 1988. "My objective was to give Rhode Island a solid alternative weekly," he says. "I succeeded and, from that standpoint, I have no regrets."
The paper is running a series of 30 interviews with 30 "local luminaries" to commemorate the occasion. The Phoenix, which started as The New Paper in 1978, was purchased by the Boston Phoenix and renamed in 1988. The Phoenix celebrated with a birthday bash this week, and the Providence Journal has posted some photos from the party.
The Phoenix was named "Newspaper of the Year" in the alternative weekly division by the New England Press Association in its 2007 Better Newspaper Contest. "After 40 years, the Boston Phoenix remains a model for alts, bristling with attitude and loaded with coverage of entertainment, culture, politics, and tweaking of the daily press," the judges say. The Boston alt-weekly led the pack of AAN papers represented in the awards with 12 first-place finishes. Boston's Weekly Dig was close behind it's crosstown competitor, grabbing seven first-place awards. The Portland Phoenix and Worcester Magazine each finished first in three categories, while the Hartford Advocate and the Providence Phoenix each took home one first-place award.
The Westerly, R.I., town council has agreed to support local citizens in their bid to have the "adult" section of the Phoenix moved behind the reference desk at the Westerly Public Library, where it would be available only to adults who request it, the Westerly Sun reports. The Phoenix has been the subject of past complaints that resulted in its being relocated to a higher shelf behind the checkout desk. At the council meeting last week, "one councilor indicated that should the library refuse to cooperate, councilors could weigh withholding its funding," according to the Sun, but library officials indicated that they would not "act in the place of parents."
