Traditional approaches like special kids' sections or youth-oriented stories sprinkled throughout the paper aren't working, so newspaper chains are testing alternative strategies to snag the elusive 18-to-34-year-old demographic, Editor & Publisher reports. For example, Gannett is launching free weeklies this fall in Boise, Idaho, and Lansing, Mich. and others have tried free-standing publications circulated to high school students. Meanwhile, some media conglomerates have decided that print is not enough, and have added youth-oriented content via radio, broadcast and the Web.
The timing may have raised eyebrows and hackles in Sacramento, coming as it did during the playoffs, but SN&R News Editor Steven T. Jones used an exclusive interview with Lakers coach Phil Jackson to try to talk him into running for president of the United States. Jackson took the bait and discussed the idea publicly for the first time. He's intelligent, confident, cool under fire, and he meditates every day. Says Jackson, "The challenge is what is good for corporations may not be good for the world itself as a harmonic organism." He brought the Bulls and Lakers together to win championships, says Jones. "It’s time to move on to the more challenging job of running this country as smoothly as a triangle offense."
Staff at the Dayton, Ohio paper have not been paid regularly since May 1, the local daily reports. Impact is one of the two remaining papers in the Yesse! Communications chain, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April 2001. Yesse! exec Kerry Farley says May 2002 was the paper’s best month yet, but that advertisers aren't paying up. "It’s a collections issue. But it’s also a problem with alternative newspapers in general," Farley said. The paper's editors have threatened to resign en masse.
Knapp was hired as a lifestyle writer for the Boston Phoenix in 1988, and invented an alter ego, Alice K., who attracted a cult following in Boston. "As a writer Caroline had a signature style," the Phoenix writes in an article for Wednesday's paper. "Her grace sometimes masked the broad stretch of her range. As a reporter, she was dogged and inventive." Knapp was the author of two New York Times best-selling memoirs: "Drinking: A Love Story" and ''Pack of Two: The Intricate Bond Between People and Dogs.'' She died Monday of lung cancer. (Photo by Mark Morelli)
The paper is already drawing heat for its Web site link to videos of reporter Daniel Pearl's gruesome murder in Pakistan. Now Publisher Stephen Mindich has told reporters he intends to publish photos of the slaying this week, if the grainy photos will reproduce, the Hartford Courant reports. "It has to be seen," Mindich told the Courant. "This is not a movie. It's not Hollywood. This is a human being [that] went through this thing. While I understand the pain felt by the Pearl family, the pain is as great for all of us in a different way. I think this brings the pain to everybody."
The San Francisco Bay Guardian expects to move into its own $4.7 million building sometime this month – where they will "never have to worry about an eviction … never have to worry about a bad landlord," says Executive Editor Tim Redmond. A 1950s era law banning SBA loans to media companies was repealed in 1994. Milwaukee’s Shepherd Express took advantage of the program in 1995. Now the Bay Guardian has swung a deal for a 30,000-square-foot building with a rooftop view of the Bay Bridge thanks to an SBA loan guarantee package.
"This is the the single most gruesome, horrible, despicable, and horrifying thing I've ever seen,'' Boston Phoenix Publisher Stephen Mindich says in an editorial accompanying his paper's link to the unedited video showing Pearl's decapitation. In an interview with the Boston Globe, Mindich decried the fact that the tape had not been more widely viewed and discussed.
In one of the most memorable events ever at an AAN convention, Dan Savage electrified the seventh annual Alternative Newsweekly Awards affair with a high-voltage performance that included nearly naked waiters and publishers shedding trousers. One attendee called it "the best hour of comedy I've ever seen." Savage's fatwah: every first-place winner had to drink a shot and shed an article of clothing. Two-thirds of the way in, he admitted, "I can't believe you are all playing along. The power of one pushy fag in AAN -- it's amazing."
