An unnamed industry source tells the Weekly's Steve Volk that a group led by Richard L. Connor is among the bidders for his paper. Connor, the editor and publisher of the Times Leader in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., led a group of investors last year in the purchase of that paper from the McClatchy Co. "Another company frequently mentioned among industry insiders as a potential bidder is Times-Shamrock Communications," Volk says, but the company says it has "no involvement." Times-Shamrock owns AAN members Baltimore City Paper, Detroit's Metro Times, Orlando Weekly, and the San Antonio Current, among other publications. Village Voice Media and Philadelphia Media Holdings have also been named as companies interested in purchasing the Weekly.
Shea Andersen replaces Nicholas Collias, who left the alt-weekly in October, and Deanna Darr takes over for Andersen as news editor. For the past 12 years, Andersen has worked as a journalist in Colorado, Oregon, New Mexico and Idaho. "We've got big plans for Boise Weekly," Andersen says. "For starters, we're sending a reporter to Cuba, we're refurbishing the website and there's finally some really good coffee in the break room."
Knute Berger says over the last few years he was at the Weekly, a stalker constantly harrassed him with letters and packages containing threats, hypodermic needles, and, once, even a bullet. Most of the packages came to the Weekly's office, but some were delivered to his home as well. He says the stalker also sent mail threatening to blow up places like Starbucks, with Berger's name on the return address. Eventually, after he left the Weekly, Seattle police apprehended a suspect, who is being charged with one count of stalking. "People in journalism are used to getting angry calls and nasty letters and e-mails," but this campaign clearly went beyond that, Berger says. "My writing was putting my family at risk."
Holly Mullen was most recently a columnist at the Salt Lake Tribune, where she resigned in December after one of her columns was pulled by a Tribune editor. She was previously a staff writer at AAN-member papers Twin Cities Reader (from 1990-1993) and the Dallas Observer (1995-1998). Mullen replaces Ben Fulton, who is on a leave of absence, but may return to the paper in a different position, according to City Weekly officials. On her blog, Mullen says she's "crazy-excited" about her new job. "I like the idea of heading up a newspaper that, instead of constantly ruminating and stressing over how to gain readers in the elusive 18-34 age category, tries to attract them with basic, good journalism," she says.
Pamela Clare's 2006 novel Surrender is a finalist for the Romance Writers of America's RITA Award in the Long Historical Romance category. Clare, better known to AAN members as Pamela White, has published six romance novels since she started writing them three years ago. Surrender is part of a historical trilogy set in pre-Revolutionary Colonial upstate New York during the French and Indian War. Final RITA winners will be announced in July.
Scott Hassenflu will leave the News & Review and the board of the Alternative Weekly Network (AWN) on May 18. In a letter sent yesterday to his AWN colleagues, Hassenflu says his "short term plans" call for "some much needed R & R" and a more active role in a home-furnishings store he co-owns. Hassenflu has served on the AWN board for the past 10 years, and has had a long career in the alternative press, including stints with the Dallas Observer and San Francisco Bay Guardian.
Orlando's Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation (MBI) tells WFTV-TV they used massage parlor ads in the Orlando alt-weekly to nab Li Ping Ding, a "ringleader" who was "running prostitution out of 10 locations in Central Florida." On the Orlando Weekly's blog, editor Bob Whitby smells something funny: He says the Weekly has been a thorn in the MBI's side for some time, and thinks it may be more than a coincidence that the Bureau included four pages of Weekly ads in the press release for Ding's bust. "Could this be part of the culture of retribution the MBI is so famous for?," Whitby asks.
Last week, the entertainment magazine In Utah This Week ran an ad claiming that it has eroded the alt-weekly's readership by 20 percent in five months. But Weekly owner John Saltas sarcastically points out the ad -- which appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune, In Utah's sister publication -- grossly overestimates the magazine's readership by referencing the wrong numbers. "CUME numbers mostly impress young reps and rookie managers and are a crock when used to purposely mislead as the In Utah folks did in [the] ad," Saltas says.
Unnamed "insiders" tell the Philadelphia Inquirer that Review Publishing LP, the Weekly's parent company, wants to package its three other publications with the alt-weekly in a sale, but VVM only wants the Weekly. Rumors of the paper's sale first appeared last week, and it has been reported that Philadelphia Media Holdings, the parent company of the city's two dailies, is also interested.
The Richmond, Va., alt-weekly took home a total of 10 first-place VPA awards, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports. Writer Brandon Walters and photographer Scott Elmquist each placed first in three categories; Elmquist and art director Jeffrey Bland shared one first place finish; Melissa Scott Sinclair and Scott Bass each grabbed one award for writing; and one went to the entire staff. Another Virginia AAN member, Port Folio Weekly, won two third-place VPA awards. UPDATE: We've been told that in addition to the 10 first-place awards, Style Weekly also won two Best-in-Show VPA awards, which are elected from all first-place winners in a newspaper's division. Photographer Scott Elmquist also recently took home another first-place award, from the Virginia News Photographers Association.
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