A Hollywood producer has asked about the rights to Philadelphia City Paper's serialized novel "Transit of Venus" by Anonymous D, says Philadelphia Daily News columnist Stu Bykofsky. "Among the cast of characters so far is a self-cent ered, prima-donna female anchor, defiant photographers, an ineffectual news director, a lesbian PR person, naive production assistants, horndog salespeople, a bearded, lecherous general manager and a police commissioner with a brogue," Bykofsky writes. Could Hollywood resist a cast of characters like that??t
Two weeks ago, St. Pete Weekly Newspapers of Florida announced it would operate the alternative journalism site Ironminds.com. Now the deal is off after the publisher lost its funding. Meanwhile, SiliconAlleyDaily.com reports that Ironminds founder Andy Wang may sell his print alternative startup, Metropolis in New York City, to AAN-member Philadelphia City Paper.
Two old friends and business partners, David Cohen and Dan Pulcrano, complete their amicable divorce, splitting their alternative and community newspaper businesses. Metro Newspapers’ plans no major changes immediately and hopes for $10 million in revenues this year, CEO Pulcrano says.
Earlier this month. Hawes Spencer, editor and co-owner of C*Ville Weekly in Charlottesville, Va., was ousted from the paper by the other two owners, Bill Chapman and Rob Jiranek. The two remaining C*Ville owners are quiet on the subject, but Spencer plans to launch a new weekly, The Hook, on Feb. 7 and has taken four C*Ville staff with him..
The Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City are boosting the Salt Lake City Weekly first-quarter bottom line. The alt-weekly is also producing its first City Guide for the games and plans to make it an annual publication. Publisher John Saltas expects a 20 percent circulation jump in the next couple of months helped along by a 10 percent increase in ad rates for the five Olympic issues.
Jill Mogen, advertising director of the Seattle Weekly, has left her position, David Schneiderman, CEO of Village Voice Media, says. Mogen had been at the newspaper for more than 11 years and was the first president of the Alternative Weekly Network in 1996-97. It is the second management shakeup at a West Coast VVM paper this month and follows Alisa Cromer's resignation as publisher of Seattle Weekly in November. Schneiderman has said he wants to spend more time personally managing Seattle Weekly and LA/OC Weekly. Cromer is now with Metro Newspapers on an interim basis.
