The Village Voice released its Comics Issue this week, with an inventive and eye-catching cover done by longtime alt-cartoonist Ward Sutton.
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.
While daily papers and alt-weeklies across the country are being forced to cut staff and salaries in this tough economy, the Jackson Free Press is bucking the trend by adding a full-time editorial position. Ward Schaefer, a former public-school teacher, joined the paper this week as a reporter on the news beat. The paper says it is also increasing the daily news coverage on its website.
The Minneapolis native is telling his clients the strip will be discontinued after next week's edition, City Pages reports. The weekly cartoon began in 1995 as "Schlock 'n' Roll" and now runs in many AAN papers. "Sutton denies this is the end of his political cartooning career," Corey Anderson writes. "But after nine years, it will be a much-needed break from weekly deadlines."
Nancy Brands Ward, who had been with the California alt-weekly since September, left the paper last week, the Sacramento Bee reports. According to publisher Jeff vonKaenel, Melinda Welsh will again serve as interim editor, a post she held for 13 months before Brands Ward was hired.
One week after a partially fabricated story by Voice writer Nick Sylvester started a media furor, acting Editor-in-Chief Doug Simmons has been replaced by Senior Editor Ward Harkavy, the New York Post reports. A photograph of a note that Executive Editor Mike Lacey scrawled on a napkin is posted on the Village Voice Web site: "Doug Simmons is no longer acting editor. Ward Harkavy, long time senior editor, and Arizona Crony, is now interim editor. Call us tomorrow for next update." (Harkavy is a former New Times Inc. employee.) Lacey met with the New York Times' David Carr yesterday, but Carr told the Post, "we had a nice conversation about the editorial opportunity at the Village Voice, but it didn't involve me editing the paper." This morning, Lacey confirmed Simmons' departure but declined to say if the Sylvester incident was a factor. Harkavy told AP that he expected Sylvester would return to the Voice after his suspension.
Ben Allen, a conservative Ward 1 Councilman in Jackson, Miss., is authoring a blog hosted on the Jackson Free Press Web site. The blog went live on Jan. 12 with a post in which Allen explains that Free Press Editor in Chief Donna Ladd is "a personal friend," and that he can "live with" the paper's liberal bent if his blog is a venue for two-sided political discussion. Allen goes on to say that he is "enthusiastic about the depth of many of the local ISSUES researched AND REPORTED in-depth by the JFP. We in government get so weary of the lack of real information in local and state issues as covered by our State's largest newspaper." In its first week, the blog generated nearly a thousand views and some polite questions about bike lanes and streetlights.
