Aina Hunter won second prize in the "Feature, News Feature or Issue Package" category of the Education Writers Association's 2004 awards. Her entry, "Speak No Evil: Don't Ask, Don't Tell," published in two parts on Sept. 22 and 29, tells the story of Edgar Friedrichs, who was convicted on four felony counts of child sexual abuse and indicted for the murder of one of his students.
Sometimes word of mouth is a more effective way of promoting a paper than a print ad. That's why some alternative newsweeklies send street teams out to bars, movie theaters and cultural events to hand out freebies and stir up interest in their papers. When they dispatch their street teams to public places, alt-weeklies like NUVO and Boston's Weekly Dig are relying on a centuries-old marketing technique the music industry revived.