In a letter to readers in the special issue hitting the streets of Richmond, Va., today, publisher Lori Collier Waran and editor Jason Roop take stock of their successes and look back at the optimism with which Style launched in November 1982. "It's difficult to imagine such optimism today, considering the publishing landscape," they write. "But here we are, hundreds of stories, thousands of pages and millions of words later, celebrating a milestone. Thank you for reading us and supporting us with your advertising."
The alt-weekly was named the 2007 Non-Daily Newspaper of the Year by the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association. City Paper also took home first place awards in General & Departmental News Coverage and Diversity, where it finished in a tie with Philadelphia Weekly.
The first thing you notice when you land on Orlando Weekly's home page these days is an audio stream of Public Enemy's "Fight the Power" -- a message the paper is clearly taking to heart. In a story nearing 5,000 words published late yesterday, the alt-weekly comes out swinging at the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation (MBI), which arrested three of its employees on Friday on charges of deriving proceeds from prostitution and aiding and abetting prostitution. (The MBI also got a grand jury indictment for criminal racketeering against the paper.) The Weekly says that the arrests were simply retaliation for publishing critical stories about the agency, and as proof points to a host of other publications that carry similar ads, yet have not been targeted by the MBI. "The MBI is an inept, inefficient police organization, answerable to no one," the paper writes. "And if you dare confront the agency on their appalling record, they will try to put you out of business."
"Orlando Weekly believes these arrests are an outrageous abuse of process and an attempt to censor the First Amendment rights of a newspaper that has reported critically on the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation," publisher Rick Schreiber says in a statement. Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell seems to agree. "You'll have to forgive me if I'm a bit skeptical about the MBI's arrest of three staffers," he says, noting that the Weekly has "been all over the MBI like fleas on a dog in recent years." He continues: "And yet, in our story today, MBI director Bill Lutz seemed to deny that his department had a grudge against the paper. If that's what he's saying, it's a crock." For more coverage of the arrests, and links to past Weekly coverage of the MBI, check out the paper's blog.
The alt-weekly was being sued by Suterra for referencing one of its product's "inert" ingredients in print, but on Friday afternoon lawyers from the company notified the paper that the suit was being dismissed "without prejudice," the Santa Cruz Sentinel reports. Then over the weekend, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered the ingredients be made public, and also ordered that the state immediately resume spraying the product, known as Checkmate LBAM-F. It is being used to eradicate the light brown apple moth.
Orlando police arrested the paper's classified advertising director and two account executives this afternoon on charges of aiding and abetting prostitution, the Orlando Sentinel reports. The Weekly's office was also "served notice on racketeering charges for contributing to the prostitution industry," according to the Sentinel. The charges stem from a two-year operation dubbed "Operation Weekly Shame." As part of the investigation, two female agents went undercover and presented themselves as prostitutes to three Weekly account executives, according to police. Criminal defense lawyer Daniel Aaronson says the Weekly did nothing wrong by taking adult-oriented advertisements. "The papers aren't doing anything illegal," he says. "They're taking ads. If an ad uses suggestive language, the stopping of these ads threatens the First Amendment."
Monterey County Weekly is being sued by the chemical company Suterra for referencing one of its product's "inert" ingredients, which the company claims are protected as trade secrets under federal law. The Weekly reported on health and environmental concerns related to two of the ingredients (first disclosed by the Santa Cruz Sentinel) in a story last week. On Tuesday, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge rejected the pesticide company's request for a temporary restraining order on the paper. The Weekly has counter-sued the company, asserting its First Amendment right to disseminate information in the public interest.
They say the buzz cycle on Next Big Things gets shorter and shorter each year, with music blogs and MySpace breaking down the geographic constraints that may have prevented a label-less and record-less band from Jacksonville, Fla., from becoming one of the most-talked-about bands in the indieverse in a matter of weeks. The case of Black Kids seems to affirm this notion. Last month, the band, which counts as its members Folio Weekly staff writer Owen Holmes and graphic designer Kevin Snow, popped up on a blog from British tastemaker NME, and it wasn't long before Black Kids were everywhere, from The Guardian to Vice to Pitchfork. The band is set to make a big splash at the CMJ Music Marathon this weekend, with three shows scheduled in New York. But before they head up I-95, both Holmes and Snow are leaving the paper to pursue the band full time. Holmes took a few minutes to talk to AAN News via email about the band's rapid rise, the difficult decision to leave Folio, and Barack Obama.
The gesture by the Richmond, Va., alt-weekly celebrates an idea recently offered by Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors Chairman Kelly E. Miller, who suggests that the county make English its official language. "Unfortunately, we were unable to make the issue 100 percent in English," Style Weekly editor Jason Roop says. "But if Mr. Miller can bear with us, we are evolving. We are trying our best." The paper hit a snag on its path to full English immersion in its always-difficult food section. "It was unavoidable to write about Nate's Taco Truck ... without using the word 'taco,'" Roop says.
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