Tim Keck, publisher of The Stranger in Seattle, has a cash infusion from the Chicago Reader to turn up the heat on his competition. The Reader is now a minority shareholder in Index Newspapers LLC, a company formed early yesterday that now owns and operates The Stranger and The Portland Mercury in Portland, Ore. Keck’s first goal: increase circulation in both markets. “We’ve been bootstrapping it for 10 years,” Keck tells AAN News. “Now we are going to be aggressively growing the business.”

Continue ReadingChicago Reader Invests in The Stranger
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With President Bush's proposed marriage initiative, Uncle Sam turns matchmaker. But does government-sponsored marriage support actually work? Chisun Lee reports in The Village Voice on the politics behind the programs, and Sharon Lerner shows how they fall short of reducing poverty. Plus: profiles of five unmarried women -- potential "targets." The plan is the brainchild of the Heritage Foundation's Robert Rector, "who derides 'the underclass' as criminal, oversexed, and lazy, makes a feint at remedying such 'dysfunctional behavior,'" Lee writes.

Continue ReadingBush Administration on Roll Against Living in Sin

Started as a hell-raising environmental, liberal weekly in 1968, the venerable Maine Times published its last issue last week. Christopher Hutchins, the weekly's latest owner (a conservative), told the staff he was no longer willing to cover the paper's losses, Editor Jay Davis tells the Portland Press Herald. "The Maine Times that folded yesterday isn't the Maine Times that we started in 1968," said [John] Cole, who lives in Brunswick. "Readers no longer were absolutely sure what the Maine Times stood for," the Press Herald reports. The Maine Times, formerly an AAN-member paper, hosted the 1987 AAN convention.

Continue ReadingMaine Times Publishes Last Issue

Kiki Yablon, who plays guitar in a punk rock band, has been promoted to managing editor of the Chicago Reader. She has been on the Reader's staff since 1996, directing the alt-weekly's music coverage, the Chicago Sun Times reports. Editor Alison True says Yablon is "perfect" for the job and won the position over a host of outside applicants. True has also promoted three Reader associate editors to senior editor: Holly Greenhagen, Kitry Krause and Laura Molzahn.

Continue ReadingPunk Rocker Becomes Reader ME
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Susan Atkins, a Manson Family disciple, is seeking parole after 33 years behind bars. OC Weekly's R. Scott Moxley reviews her parole hearing file and finds testimonies to Atkin's prison redemption. A devout Christian, a married woman who needs a hearing aid, a mentor to other prisoners, a favorite of her jailers, an accomplished artist. Quite a trip from the woman who once testified that she'd stabbed pregnant actress Sharon Tate because the sound of Tate's voice pleading for her life was irritating.

Continue ReadingTransformed Manson Family Killer Seeks Parole

Award-winning political writer and columnist Jim DeFede has resigned from Miami New Times, the Daily Business Review reports. DeFede, who has been at the paper for more than 10 years and says "(i)t was a great place to work," plans to write a book about the diversion of commercial air traffic to Newfoundland on Sept. 11. Local journalist Ed Wasserman says, “[DeFede] electrified municipal coverage in this town. He was simply the best I’ve seen in my 20-some years here.”

Continue ReadingVeteran Reporter Resigns From Miami New Times