There are three things you should know about this week's cover, the Dig's Joe Keohane tells the Boston Herald: 1. The timing was right, since the Sox and Yankees are "neck and neck (so to speak)'' in the pennant race. And the one-year anniversary of the Massachusett's same-sex marriage ruling is only, umm, six weeks out. 2. The photo was snapped by Tony Bennett's granddaughter. 3. It's an experiment to see who would be more pissed off -- baseball fans or homophobes.

Continue ReadingThe Dig on Bosox-Yanks: Gayest Cover Ever?

Gustavo Arellano was selected to participate in the University of Southern California Annenberg School of Communication seminar, "Latinization of Art and Culture in America: Understanding Its Impact and Why It Matters," which will be held the third week of October. Twenty-two fellows were honored with an invitation, but only Arellano and Augustin Gurza of the LA Times were named senior fellows; they are expected to assume leadership roles for the duration of the conference. Arellano was the recipient of an AAN Diversity Internship grant in 2002.

Continue ReadingOC Weekly Writer Named Annenberg Senior Fellow

Newly named AAN assistant editor Shala Carlson (pictured), who was serving as Gambit Weekly's managing editor prior to Hurricane Katrina, has decided to return to Louisiana. "I think I just acted too quickly," Carlson says. "I believed I was ready to make a move, but I didn't anticipate how much I need friends and family and familiarity right now." AAN posted a help-wanted ad today for the newly reopened position.

Continue ReadingGambit Weekly Managing Editor Leaves AAN to Return to Louisiana

As the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina continue to unfold, blogs the Web over are turning to the discussion of what exactly went wrong in those crucial early hours. The 2004 AAN-sponsored FEMA disaster story appears often. Most notably, Eschaton and Washington Monthly have linked to the story and the Sept. 7 follow-up published on altweeklies.com, both written by Jon Elliston of the Independent Weekly. In addition, a Louisiana-specific report written by Gambit Weekly staffer Eileen Loh-Harrist shows up on Talking Points Memo.

Continue ReadingAAN FEMA Disaster Articles Appear in Blogosphere

When OC Weekly was launched in 1995, most people figured it wouldn't last: Orange County was (they said) too decentralized, conservative and suburban for an alt-weekly. Even editor/publisher Will Swaim admits he experienced a little anxiety in those early days. Yet here the paper is 10 years later, stronger than ever, making a difference in people's lives, and providing work for its staff that is exciting, fun and rewarding. And Swaim has a few people to thank for that.

Continue ReadingOC Weekly on Its 10th: Thank You Comrades!

Alt-weeklies walked away with half of the 18 winning entries in the under-150,000 circulation category of the Association of Food Journalists awards announced last week. New Times foodies at Dallas Observer, SF Weekly and Riverfront Times each picked up a first-place prize, while Houston Press' Robb Walsh took home both a first- and second-place. Independent Weekly, Creative Loafing-Atlanta and Willamette Week were the other AAN winners in the AFJ's small-paper category. LA Weekly's Jonathan Gold, who won first-place in this year's AltWeekly Awards Food Writing category (Walsh placed second), also won first-place for Restaurant Criticism in the AFJ contest, in the 150,001-300,000 circulation category.

Continue ReadingAlt-Weeklies Dominate Food Journalism Awards

Twenty-five of the 43 AAN publishers who responded to a survey on Friday afternoon said they were interested in running house ads promoting the Gambit Relief Fund. So AAN asked Katherine Topaz of Topaz Design to create a quarter-page vertical ad (the size preferred by 78 percent of the respondents) that could be easily adapted by AAN members for use in their own papers. Kat ended up designing three of them, and they are now available for download from this page in the AAN Resource Library. An even larger majority of respondents said they were interested in running ads directing reader contributions to general Katrina-relief organizations sanctioned by AAN, so another set of quarter-page ads will be created once the association identifies general relief funds that make sense for its members.

Continue ReadingAAN Creates House Ads for Gambit Relief Fund