The Sex-Positive Journalism Awards have announced the winners of the 2009 Sexies, the annual awards that go to stories that "improve the quality of dialogue around sex and create a more well-informed reading public." Seven Days' Judith Levine took home a first-place win in the Opinion category, where she also tied for second place with a Village Voice piece by Tristan Taormino. Amanda Hess of Washington City Paper picked up a third-place win in the Columns category for "The Sexist," while in the News/Features (Alt-Weeklies, Monthlies) category the Alibi's Marisa Demarco placed third and Rich Kane (OC Weekly) and Michael J. Mooney (New Times Broward-Palm Beach) both were named runners-up.
Back in March 2006, City Paper staff writer Huan Hsu reported on the lack of racial diversity in the paper's newsroom: "It's not all that surprising that the Washingtonian is a really white magazine. It would seem a much bigger problem for the City Paper, which purports to write about a predominately black city, yet is produced by a bunch of young white folks who live in Northwest D.C." Current staffer Andrew Beaujon revisits the piece and reports that the paper has not only gotten smaller, but it has gotten whiter as well. "Our full-time editorial staff then: 22, all but two of whom were white," he writes. "Our full-time edit staff now: 10, all of whom are white."
Washington City Paper's Jeffry Cudlin, who won the 2008 AltWeekly Award for Arts Criticism, discussed his work in a live chat with Tuscon Weekly's Jimmy Boegle.
Washington City Paper's Jeffry Cudlin will discuss his award-winning arts criticism with Tucson Weekly editor Jimmy Boegle this Friday, Dec. 4, in the latest installment of AAN's live chat series with 2009 AltWeekly Award winners. The chat will take place on AAN.org at 3 pm EST.
AAN's executive director and Washington City Paper's editor joined the Project for Excellence in Journalism's Mark Jurkowitz and former Washington Blade editor Kevin Naff on a D.C. public-radio show yesterday for a wide-ranging discussion about how the digital transformation, changing demographics and the recession are affecting alternative media.
Washington City Paper editor Erik Wemple will discuss his award-winning media reporting with Tucson Weekly editor Jimmy Boegle on AAN.org this Friday, Oct. 30. Wemple took home first place for "One Mission, Two Newsrooms," his examination of the divide between the digital and print staffs at the Washington Post. Friday's chat will begin at 3 pm EDT.
This week's release of Leonard Downie Jr. and Michael Schudson's report "The Reconstruction of American Journalism" has the journalism world buzzing. "The report takes a particular interest in local accountability and enterprise reporting," Washington City Paper editor Erik Wemple notes, "which is the commodity most at stake as newspapers pare down their editorial staffs." After searching the report for any mention of the alt-weekly's role in journalism's future and finding none, Wemple says he understands. "After all, alt-weeklies ... only channel all of their editorial resources toward local reporting; only conduct long-form investigations of key local agencies and authorities all the time; only monitor city halls like no one's business; only do all kinds of arts reporting that no other outlets care to do; and have been at it only for about half a century now," he writes. "Why mention those news organizations?"
It's the big debate in mainstream journalism these days: Should publishers make readers pay to access the paper online? When the New York Times this week announced that more layoffs were on the way, many loyal readers posted comments signaling their interest in paying to read the website to avoid further cuts. Although the paywall debate has been pretty much absent from the alt-weekly world since the newspapers are free to begin with, the outpouring of support from Times readers led Washington City Paper's Jason Cherkis to wonder: "What Would You Pay To Read An Award-Winning Alt-Weekly?" As of this writing, of the five comments that actually address the question, two (and a half) say they'd pay to access City Paper online.
Washington City Paper has not been available on Catholic University's campus since May, when the alt-weekly ran a story on the school's campus sex ban, "Screw U: Inside the Secret Sex Life of Catholic University." The university's director of public affairs tells the campus paper The Tower that City Paper's removal was brought on by its "hateful article ridiculing our Catholic faith" but declined to provide any further details. "Whether or not that article was a true portrayal of students, we should be able to decide for ourselves whether or not it's worth reading," sophomore Joe McAnaney says. "It's disappointing that I can't just pick up the City Paper in the Pryz [the student center] anymore, even though I understand the University's decision."
AAN News has just received a copy of Da Capo's Best Food Writing 2009, and it is chock full of alt-weekly talent. Included in the collection are stories from City Pages' Rachel Hutton ("Spam: It's Not Just for Inboxes Anymore"), New Times Broward-Palm Beach's John Linn ("Highway to Hog Heaven"), SF Weekly's Peter Jamison ("Out of the Wild"), The Stranger's Bethany Jean Clement ("The Beauty of the Beast"), Washington City Paper's Tim Carman ("How Not to Hire a Chef"), and Westword's Jason Sheehan ("The Last of the Great $10 Steaks"). The book also includes a selection from Houston Press food writer Robb Walsh's book on oysters, and is slated to be released this fall.
