Reporters with a great scoop no longer have to sit tight trying not to burst while they wait for the next week’s paper to roll out, freelance writer Charlie Deitch reports for AAN News. It’s possible to publish online 24/7. Several AAN papers are moving away from the static Web site that remains the same for seven days and then has its contents refreshed all at once. A few alt-weeklies post new material daily, and others turn first to the Web whenever they’ve got an especially hot story.
Newspapers in the Phoenix-based alt-weekly chain picked up seven of the 11 awards handed out last month in the under 150,000 circulation category of the National Association of Black Journalists' annual contest. Dallas Observer's Jim Schutze and Julie Lyons, Cleveland Scene's Thomas Francis and Riverfront Times' Jeannette Batz all were named first-place winners.
Editor Pete Kotz says the two ad department employees had been out drinking and were just "trash-talking over the phone." Cleveland Free Times Editor David Eden claims they threatened to murder a Free Times employee and rape his wife. Whatever it was, it's now in the courts. Adam Simon and Brian LeBlanc face charges of aggravated menacing, telecommunications harassment and making threats over the telephone, The Plain Dealer reports.
The Association for Women in Communications grants Martin Kuz of Cleveland Scene a Clarion Award for his story, "The Wal-Mart Menace" in the Newspaper Hard News Story category. Geri Dreiling of Riverfront Times also picks up a Clarion Award in the Newspaper Feature Story category for "Nasty Boys."
Dallas Observer won two first place awards in the 2003 Missouri Lifestyle Journalism Awards, and The Village Voice and Phoenix New Times each took one. East Bay Express won second place in the General Excellence category for papers with circulations 50,001 to 100,000, and New Times papers were finalists in nine other categories.
New Times Executive Editor Mike Lacey calls Cleveland Free Times' recent attacks on New Times and Cleveland Scene "an explosion of bluster." Lacey accuses Free Times' Editor David Eden and Publisher Matt Fabyan of concocting "conspiracies wrapped in an ad hominem attack" and of publishing "organ discharge." He cites sales and profit figures that starkly contradict Free Times' assertion that it was winning the alternative newsweekly battle in Cleveland.
In its second issue since reopening after a seven-month closure, Cleveland Free Times writes a snarling cover story on the finances of its rival Cleveland Scene and its parent, New Times. The story by Editor David Eden charges that the Scene "is living on life support and is awaiting its day of reckoning."
Nigel Jaquiss of Willamette Week and Pete Kotz of the Cleveland Scene win special citations in the 2002 National Awards for Education Reporting. Kotz' citation was for opinion writing in the 100,000 and above division for "Welcome to Cheaptown." Jaquiss was recognized for feature writing in the under 100,000 division for his story “Anywhere, U.S.A.: Portland is in Danger of Losing the One Thing That Makes It Unique." He won a first place in this contest last year in investigative reporting.
Akron Beacon Journal Columnist David Giffel declines the title of "worst columnist" because he claims an archenemy, Dave "Coondog" O'Karma, stuffed the ballot box. "When I asked Scene editor Pete Kotz how many votes I'd received, he admitted, `We never counted the votes.''' Giffel writes. The winner was selected on the basis of the staff's favorite nominating letter, which termed Giffel's writing "unoriginal, unimaginative and shallow."
