"I hope it gets people to think about the nature of television and the business that it does." So says Tony Ortega, a New Times LA writer who admits that "maybe" he penned a "news story" reporting that NBC is about to cut a deal for "Survive This!" -- a "'Survivor' meets Hannibal Lechter"-style reality series starring the two California teenagers whose recent abduction and rape made the national news. An NBC spokeswoman says there is "no truth" to the story. Another New Times paper, the Dallas Observer, was sued earlier this year by two local officials targeted in a similar spoof.
Independent Weekly's acquisition of Raleigh's alt-weekly the Spectator will allow the newly merged Independent to beef up its A&E coverage and leaves Creative Loafing with more cash for its four AAN-member papers. "One of us ultimately had to give in to create a single financially successful paper, and we yielded to local ownership," said Ben Eason, CEO of Creative Loafing Inc.
For years, the residents of an inner-city boarding house in the slums of West Palm Beach have sold drugs, beat on each other and generally struggled to get by. But then the city announced plans to demolish their home to make way for multi-million dollar apartments. New Times Broward/Palm Beach staff writer Eric Alan Barton reports how this threat brought the residents together in their own strange, strange way.
After 27 years at Mass General, social worker Hope Cranska was abruptly laid off. The hospital calls it a simple case of downsizing, but evidence points to another explanation: age discrimination. Cranska's lawsuit against the hospital still hasn't been resolved although a jury awarded her $631,000 in damages in 1999, Kristen Lombardi writes in the Boston Phoenix. Cranska's case epitomizes "the potential injustices faced by outspoken older employees in bottom-line American corporate culture," Lombardi writes.
Media giant Gannett Co. is launching its first salvo in a war to win the elusive 25-to-34 year old reader away from alternative newsweeklies. In Lansing, Mich., and Boise, Idaho, Gannett dailies are set to begin publishing "alternative" weeklies this fall. Established alts in those markets are bracing for the ruthless competition described by Richard McCord in his book "Chain Gang." Berl Schwartz, publisher of City Pulse in Lansing, scoffs at the notion the Gannett weekly will be an edgy alternative publication. "What is it an alternative to?" he asks. "Itself?"
