Publisher Al Johnson, a media sales veteran, launches Omaha Pulp this week, with the help of three former staffers from Omaha Reader -- editors Timothy Schaffert and Leslie Prisbell and Production Manager Justin Wolta. Johnson says he hopes to be profitable by August. John Heaston, publisher of the Omaha Weekly Reader, says he welcomes competition that will keep Omaha's media scene lively.

Continue ReadingNew Weekly Launches in Omaha

Timothy Schaffert’s first novel is to be published by BlueHen, a new literary division of publishing giant Penguin Putnam, in June 2002. The Phantom Limbs of the Rollow Sisters is about sisters damaged by abandonment. Schaffert, managing editor of the Omaha Reader says his day job is like a baby squalling in the next room, "a distraction from creativity, certainly, but an important distraction."

Continue ReadingOmaha Reader ME Signs Book Deal