Due to a 2004 change in the association's bylaws, five papers that have taken on new majority owners in the past two years will have their AAN membership reviewed in 2008. The Membership Committee will evaluate The Other Paper, Boston's Weekly Dig, East Bay Express, Metro Pulse, and Cityview, and will issue a report to members a week before the 2007 annual convention. To retain their membership, each paper must be affirmed by at least one-third of the members voting at the annual meeting in Philadelphia, which is tentatively scheduled for June 7.
"This week's issue marks my last as editor," Bill Colrus writes in a farewell column. He's leaving the Chattanooga alt-weekly "for a new and exciting opportunity in the world of custom publishing," and will be replaced by current co-publisher Michael Kull. "This paper has been devoted to digging for bits of truth buried in mountains of dishonesty and spin, and I've been glad to man the shovel," writes Colrus, who was hired prior to the paper's launch in 2003. "As I leave, I am confident that The Pulse will continue its mission to give a voice to the voiceless, go deeper on stories when a superficial snapshot is not enough, and strive to tell the stories nobody else will tell."
Coury Turczyn, who was a "principal editor" of the Knoxville alt-weekly for most of its first nine years before he left in 2000, will return to the paper on Aug. 13 as editor-in-chief, according to an editorial posted on the Metro Pulse website. "More than any other individual, he shaped the paper's appealingly snotty personality and irreverent course," reports the anonymous editorialist. After living in several different states, Turczyn returned to Knoxville in 2005 to serve as an editor for E.W. Scripp's HGTV website. Scripps, which also owns the daily paper in Knoxville, acquired Metro Pulse late last month. Current editor Leslie Wylie announced two months ago that she would be leaving the paper to become a professional competitive equestrian.
The Knoxville News Sentinel Media Group, a division of Scripps, has purchased AAN member Metro Pulse, the News Sentinel reports. "Metro Pulse will keep their editorial and advertising independence. At some point in the future, we will be printing our new weekly product," News Sentinel publisher Bruce Hartmann says in a memo. "Brian Conley will remain as the publisher of Metro Pulse but will only be involved in the editorial direction of the paper."
Brian Conley, and his wife, Patricia Conley, spent an evening in a Knox County jail after being arrested Saturday night on charges relating to public intoxication, reports the local daily. After leaving a Christmas party, the Conley's vehicle was stopped by Knoxville Police. When the police arrested Mr. Conley for public drunkenness, his wife "became combative and interfered with the arrest," according to court records. She was subsequently arrested for disorderly conduct. "The Conleys do dispute the events as they are stated in the incident report," says their attorney, who adds that Brian Conley "did the responsible thing by having his wife drive after the party."
Alternative newsweeklies "don't usually fare very well in Chattanooga," says Editor Bill Colrus, but his paper seems to be bucking the trend. According to Colrus, The Pulse's improving finances have led to an expanded news section, which brings the alt-weekly closer to its goal to be like the papers "we loved in other cities" -- Nashville Scene, Creative Loafing and the New Haven Advocate. The Pulse applied for AAN membership in 2005 and 2006.
Eight of the prospective members are previous applicants, and two are owned by alt-weekly veterans who had been members during a previous association with different papers. AAN members will also be asked this year to evaluate Boston's Weekly Dig and Des Moines' Cityview, the first two post-sale newspapers whose membership will be reviewed under a process established in 2004 when the association's bylaws were amended. The fate of all of these papers will be determined at the organization's next Annual Meeting, which will be held in Little Rock on Saturday, June 17, the last day of the 29th annual AAN convention.
Ian Blackburn, who in 1991 began the Knoxville, Tenn., alt-weekly with Ashley Capps, Rand Pearson and Margaret Weston, is leaving the paper. In an article titled "Farewell, Ian," associate editor Jack Neely calls Blackburn, who's held the title of systems manager in recent years, a "computer nerd with a wild bohemian heart." According to the article, Blackburn's departure is due, at least in part, to the discontinuation of MetroBlab, the paper's online chat room. Neely calls MetroBlab "a subject of contention" and explains that associate publisher John Wright "pulled the plug on it last month."
The new owner of the Knoxville, Tenn., alternative newsweekly has replaced two staff members after telling AAN News in May that he had no plans for staff changes. Brian Conley, a developer, has named an employee of his real estate firm managing editor and replaced the paper's art director with an award- winning advertising designer, who will direct a redesign.
Joe Sullivan, publisher of Metro Pulse for 10 years, has sold the Knoxville, Tenn., weekly to Brian Conley, a general contractor who has development contracts with the city. Conley, who was briefly a co-owner of the Pulse in the mid-1990s, pledges he will guard the alt-weekly's editorial independence, even as it investigates his own dealings with the city (see story link below). Sullivan stays on as editor in chief and columnist.
