At its 60th annual Green Eyeshade banquet near Atlanta, Ga., the Society of Professional Journalists awarded the Jackson Free Press three first-place reporting awards.
A few years ago, threatened by media giant Gannett's attempt to control local print distribution via The Distribution Network (TDN), the Jackson Free Press and other local publishers banded together to form the Mississippi Independent Publishers' Alliance (MIPA). MIPA then began a process of buying, placing and managing its own system of multi-publication news boxes around the city. Now it looks like MIPA's efforts paid off. JFP publisher Todd Stauffer tells AAN News that the Gannett-owned Jackson Clarion-Ledger has quietly picked up all their TDN boxes and apparently closed out their program. "I'm not sure if this is a trend company-wide for Gannett, but it looks like the 'control-free-distribution' chapter is no longer in the Gannett playbook for Jackson," he says.
Earlier this month, the alt-weekly launched a daily e-blast that will feature one full story along with listings and other timely content, like profiles of musicians or authors who have appearances that day. The Daily, which has the catchy slogan "Today's News...Today," will be published each day at 1 pm. "It's been twenty years since Jackson had an afternoon daily," publisher Todd Stauffer tells the Greater Jackson Chamber Partnership (pdf). "We thought it would be interesting to revive that tradition, but starting from the ground up using 21st Century technology."
The confidential survey (click here for PDF copy) covers a broad range of topics, including financial info, web traffic, staffing, software, marketing, email newsletters, blogs and multimedia. It was emailed to AAN publishers today. The results will be compiled by AAN staff; Jackson Free Press' Todd Stauffer will analyze the results and present the findings in a closed session at the AAN Convention in Philadelphia. Only those papers that substantially complete the survey by the close-of-business on May 12 will receive a copy of the results and be allowed to attend Stauffer's presentation at the convention.
Lance Hammer's Ballast, which will compete with 15 other films in the Dramatic Competition at this year's festival, has a certain familiar alt-weekly publisher in its credits. The Jackson Free Press' Todd Stauffer was production manager for the film, which is described by Sundance as "a riveting, lyrical portrait of an emotionally frayed family whose lives are torn asunder by a tragic act in a small Mississippi Delta town."
Todd Stauffer's new paperback How to Do Everything with Your Web 2.0 Blog has just been released by McGraw-Hill Osborne Media. Press materials say the book "makes it easy to choose the blogging tools that are best for you and master the basics of blog design and template manipulation."
The paper was written by Todd Stauffer, publisher of AAN member Jackson Free Press, and includes “best practices” and other materials from his highly rated presentation on the same subject earlier this year at the AAN convention in Portland. The paper also features additional material, including a survey of event-listings application vendors. A single copy of the report was mailed today to every AAN-member publisher.
In a full-page house ad published Sunday in the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, Publisher John Newhouse defended the paper's The Distribution Network (TDN). Newhouse revealed that the daily had been contacted by the state attorney general's office concerning the network; "While we are 100 percent confident that TDN was started with utmost professionalism, and can withstand any test, we are disappointed that a legitimate business venture has had to endure such unnecessary scrutiny," Newhouse wrote. He also detailed vandalism that occurred against the Clarion-Ledger employee who represents TDN. Publisher Todd Stauffer of the Jackson Free Press and other members of the Mississippi Independent Publishers’ Alliance (MIPA) today issued an open letter to Newhouse, refuting his version of events and expressing offense at the suggestion they endorse vandalism. "To imply such a thing is irresponsible and inappropriate, Mr. Newhouse, and we expect an apology," they write.
