The Voice's blog post on the result of yesterday's special election for the Massachusetts Senate seat vacated by Ted Kennedy -- titled "Scott Brown Wins Mass. Race, Giving GOP 41-59 Majority in the Senate" -- was singled out by The Guardian's Michael Tomasky as the headline of the day. "Someone put their witty cap on today over there at the Village Voice," he writes.

Continue ReadingMichael Tomasky: Village Voice Scores ‘Headline of the Day’

Mark Gates, a former ad sales representative at the Village Voice, died earlier this month of lung cancer. He was 57. After working for a few years doing general sales at the Voice, Gates' boss suggested he start cold-calling publishers to sell book ads, but he was met with hesitation by the book publishers. As Gates told Publishers Weekly in 2006, he then came up with the idea of doing a section of book reviews once a month, and the Voice Literary Supplement was born, with the first issue coming out in October 1981.

Continue ReadingMark Gates, Who Helped Launch ‘Voice Literary Supplement,’ Dies

In a report on the newspaper industry's well-publicized woes, the New Orleans alt-weekly points out that "2009 has been a relatively good year for Gambit and many other locally owned, locally focused newspapers." The paper reports it avoided layoffs by decreasing its newsprint size and taking other cost-cutting measures and says it should fare well as the issues in the industry continue to shake out: "In the long run, the newspapers that survive will be those that have a special bond with their readers -- and we count ourselves among them."

Continue ReadingThe Gambit: We’ve Had a ‘Relatively Good Year’

"While it may be easy to dismiss Seattle's most eccentric weekly paper, there is growing evidence that The Stranger may be more in tune with Emerald City voters than the other major papers in the area," writes Mike Noon in the University of Washington's student newspaper. "The Stranger has some serious political clout in Puget Sound politics." Noon points to the city's recent mayoral election as proof, saying the alt-weekly's "enthusiastic support of mayor-elect Mike McGinn was likely one of the key factors in his victory."

Continue ReadingThe Stranger Flexing Real Political Muscle in Seattle

"Memphis magazine publisher Kenneth Neill somehow managed to convince the company's board members to invest in an idea he had: a free weekly tabloid that would be called the Memphis Flyer," editor Bruce VanWyngarden writes in an introduction to the paper's 20th anniversary issue. "The first issue hit the streets in February 1989." In another column, Neill explains why the paper didn't celebrate the actual anniversary back in February. "February 2009 did not seem a particularly good time for a 20-year celebration," he writes. "The economy was in the toilet, and our spirits weren't far behind."

Continue ReadingMemphis Flyer Celebrates 20th Annivesary

Paul Constant, who says he thinks he's "one of the only books page editors left at an alternative weekly in America," tells the Rejectionist blog how he chooses books to include in The Stranger. "Basically, I read what I want. I figure, at a page and a half a week and with a very, very small freelance budget, there's no way I'm going to do a comprehensive books page, New York Times-style," he says. "So what I think is important is to keep track of my reading life."

Continue ReadingThe Stranger’s Books Editor Talks About How He Manages His Section