Prosecutors investigating the New Times-Village Voice Media deal that closed New Times LA and Cleveland Free Times worked through the weekend taking depositions, according to the L.A. Times' Tim Rutten. Sources familiar with the depositions told Rutten that prosecutors "repeatedly returned to questions concerning the nature of alternative journalism and the impact of New Times' closure on local news coverage." One unidentified witness said many of the prosecutors' questions "seemed to be driven by their belief that unlike a mainstream daily newspaper, an alternative weekly is suffused throughout with a particular point of view. They seem to believe that losing an alternative paper is a greater hardship to the community in that way than losing a mainstream daily."
Florida police have perfected the art of sweet-talking their way into homes, neatly circumventing the Fourth Amendment. Orlando Weekly's William Dean Hinton looks at what cops call "knock-and-talk," or "knock-and-announce." Sounds innocent, but isn't, Hinton concludes.
"We're relieved the Justice Department has decided to draw a line in the sand in this case," Michael Lacey, executive editor of New Times, sarcastically tells LA business columnist, Daniel Akst. The columnist chides New Times and Village Voice Media for being sanctimonious about the evils of "big-city dailies" but concedes Lacey's point: "If a generation's worth of media consolidation is OK because of new technologies and competition between broadcasters, print outlets, the Internet and so forth, it probably shouldn't be a hanging offense that a couple of unsuccessful weeklies are closing in concert."
Has the Sierra Club become just another faction of the Democratic Party? Four Utah environmentalists find themselves in the forefront of a nationwide revolt against the leadership of the club for putting politics ahead of the environment. The primary object of their ire? Executive Director Carl Pope. "But critics say the 700,000-member strong organization with an estimated $80 million annual budget is now nothing more than a glorified hiking club that has sold out the environment to get buddy-buddy with Democratic politicians," Shane McCammon writes.
Long-time General Manager Amy Austin was promoted to publisher of D.C.'s alt-weekly, taking over from Thomas Yoder, who also has responsibilities in Chicago with CP's sister paper. "I think we've gotten to the point now where this is just a mature, strong paper with not only a great person in Amy, but a good management staff under Amy," COO Jane Levine tells the Washington Business Journal.
John Cole, co-founder of former AAN-member Maine Times, died Tuesday of cancer. He was 79. Co-founder Peter Cox describes Cole as "a beautiful writer and passionate about everything." Jay Davis, the crusading weekly's former editor, said that Cole occasionally made people angry, but he was passionate about issues affecting the state he loved. "People who read the Times admired his spirit," Davis tells the Portland Press Herald.
