Brad Tyer, the Observer's managing editor, is one of 19 journalists selected for the prestigious Knight-Wallace Fellowship at the University of Michigan for the upcoming academic year. He will focus on environmental justice issues. Each fellow receives a stipend of $70,000, supported by gifts from foundations, news organizations and individuals.
In a letter published in this week's New Yorker, Richard Karpel tells the magazine that Louis Menand was bizarrely off the mark when he claimed in his recent story on The Village Voice that "after 1970, the alternative press died out" when "mainstream publications moved into the field." Karpel writes: "The progenitors of the alternative press ... were founded by trailblazers so far out of the mainstream that forty years later even a scrupulous publication like The New Yorker seems to have forgotten that they exist," MORE: Texas Observer managing editor Brad Tyer weighs in on Menand's piece on his blog.
The Missoula Independent tapped arts and entertainment editor Skylar Browning to be its next editor and hired freelance contributor Erika Fredrickson to take over the arts desk. Browning, who has edited the arts section for four years, will replace Brad Tyer, who left late last year. "Skylar was the guy we wanted from the start," says Independent publisher Matt Gibson. "He's very, very good at the work he does -- smart, funny, ambitious. And he exudes personal confidence and professional cool. He's a truly admirable colleague, and I'm thrilled he agreed to step up."
Carlton Carl is the new CEO and executive publisher of the Observer. He most recently was vice president of media affairs and policy and strategy for the American Association for Justice. The Observer is also bringing back Brad Tyer, who has been named its new managing editor. Tyer, who did a stint as the Observer's interim editor a few years ago and has worked at the Houston Press and Willamette Week, was most recently editor of the Missoula Independent.
"I'm writing to announce my impending departure from the Missoula Independent after five lovely years," Brad Tyer writes in a farewell email to colleagues. Tyer joined the Independent in 2002 after spending time elsewhere in the alt-weekly universe, including the Texas Observer, Houston Press, and Willamette Week. "As much as I've enjoyed working in newsrooms, especially this one, I'm also looking forward to seeing what the world looks like through a non-alt-weekly lens for the first time since -- my God -- 1991," he says. Tyer, who expects to leave no later than Oct. 4, says he will stay in Missoula and continue writing.
The Missoula Independent has hired alt-weekly veteran Brad Tyer as its new editor. Tyer, a native of Houston, takes over from Interim Editor David Madison, who will become the paper’s Flathead Bureau Chief in Kalispell, Mont. Tyer was previously editor of the Texas Observer and before that a staff reporter at the Houston Press.
