The California Newspaper Publishers Association recently gave out 480 first and second place awards in its 2009 Better Newspapers contest, and nine alt-weeklies received at least one. The Sacramento News & Review won ten awards, including firsts for Public Service, Columns, Sports Story, Front Page, Freedom of Information. SF Weekly won seven awards, including first-place finishes for Writing, Investigative/Enterprise Reporting and Environmental/Ag Resource Reporting. The North Coast Journal won six awards, including firsts in the Writing, Local News Coverage, Business/Financial Story and Environmental/Ag Resource Reporting categories. Palo Alto Weekly took home five awards -- all first-place wins -- in the Editorial Comment, Local News Coverage, Sports Coverage, Feature Photo, Best Website and General Excellence categories. Chico News & Review won two awards, both firsts, for Editorial Pages and Special Issue. Pacific Sun also took home two awards, both firsts, for Feature Story and Lifestyle Coverage. Metro Silicon Valley, Pasadena Weekly and the San Francisco Bay Guardian each took home one award.

Continue ReadingNine California AAN Members Take Home State Press Awards

The California Newspaper Publishers Association announced the winners of its annual Better Newspapers Contest on Saturday, and nine AAN members won a total of 38 awards. The Sacramento News & Review won a total of nine awards, five of which were first-place finishes, including a General Excellence win. "The News & Review is a salty and irreverent weekly packed with excellent coverage of news and culture, multiple voices in columns and two pages of letters," the judges wrote. "Its colorful design is inviting and, praises to the sales department, it is packed with ads." In addition, Palo Alto Weekly also won nine total awards; the North Coast Journal won eight; Chico News & Review won four; the San Francisco Bay Guardian won three; Metro Silicon Valley won two; and the Pacific Sun, Pasadena Weekly and SF Weekly each took home one award. CORRECTION: The Santa Barbara Independent also won five awards.

Continue ReadingCalifornia Alt-Weeklies Take Home Dozens of State Awards

Jacob Shafer has replaced Anthony Pignataro as the paper's editor, according to a press release. Shafer comes to Maui from Northern California, where he served as calendar editor and later staff writer for The Pacific Sun. "Jacob has a firm grasp of important environmental issues that are so critical to our delicate and precious market, an isolated island in the middle of the Pacific. He contributes a maturity level way beyond his years to this gift that we offer our community," says Maui Time publisher Tommy Russo.

Continue ReadingMaui Time Weekly Announces New Editor

AAN members won 15 first-place awards in the California Association of Newspaper Publishers' annual contest, led by Palo Alto Weekly, which took home five firsts. Chico News & Review placed first in in three categories; Pacific Sun won two; and Metro Santa Cruz, North Coast Journal, Sacramento News & Review, San Francisco Bay Guardian, and the Santa Barbara Independent each finished in first in one category. The awards were presented in a ceremony Saturday evening.

Continue ReadingCalifornia Alt-Weeklies Win a Slew of ‘Better Newspapers’ Awards

Von Buchau, a veteran arts critic who wrote for the AAN member Pacific Sun for almost four decades, was 67-years-old when she passed away, report the San Francisco Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle. The cause is believed to be complications from diabetes. Von Buchau won three AltWeekly Awards for arts criticism, including a first-place prize in 1999. "She was a brilliant woman, talented, irascible, and witty," former Pacific Sun managing editor Linda Xiques tells the Examiner.

Continue ReadingStephanie von Buchau, Award Winning Art Critic, Found Dead

Jason Walsh will take the helm from Linda Xiques this Friday, the Marin County weekly announced in its current issue. Xiques began working at the Sun as an intern before becoming a reporter and then serving as an editor of the paper for 23 years. Walsh "has a broad newspaper background in areas of news and features as well as experience in radio and television," according to the Sun. Most recently, he was news editor at the Sonoma Index-Tribune.

Continue ReadingPacific Sun Hires New Editor

This week's issue contains a defense of former Baltimore Sun columnist Michael Olesker by former Sun writer David Simon. Olesker was asked to retire earlier this month after City Paper's Gadi Dechter found that Olesker had lifted language from other writers at the Sun, the New York Times and the Washington Post. Simon argues that "most reporting -- unless it utilizes confidential sources or results from some investigative effort or special project -- has a short shelf life before it becomes nonproprietary," and says that if Olesker is a plagiarist, so are all journalists.

Continue ReadingBaltimore City Paper Publishes Rebuttal of Olesker Charges