Publisher Craig Hitchcock tells AAN News he is talking to an East Coast media chain about a sale of the struggling alt-weekly. The Independent’s reopening in the spring depends on a number of factors, among them hanging on to existing advertisers and attracting new investors, Hitchcock says. Parent company Yesse! Communications, in Chapter 11 reorganization since April 2001, is now operating only two papers – Impact Weekly in Dayton, Ohio, and Illinois Times, in Champaign, Ill., down from five at the beginning of 2001.
Four Utah media organizations, including Salt Lake City Weekly, have threatened to sue Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt for his policy of routinely deleting official e-mails, The Salt Lake Tribune reports. Media attorneys argue Leavitt is destroying records of "the governmental present and historical past." Managing Editor Chris Smart tells the Tribune, "Those e- mails belong to the taxpayers and the voters. The fact that he has not recognized this is of great concern."
The Pacific Northwest Inlander unveils its redesign today. Seattle designer Mark Evans, a familiar name among AAN papers, began the makeover last spring. Inlander Publisher Ted S. McGregor Jr. says the redesign is a signal the weekly is “not content to stand still.”
Angela Coffel is the first woman ever jailed in Missouri as a violent sexual predator. Riverfront Times' Geri L. Dreiling looks at the story and concludes that evidence of Coffel's sexual violence is virtually non-existent. One expert concluded "because of her childhood sexual abuse, as well as her highly chaotic and abusive home life, Angel uses sex as a way to gain acceptance and affection." In a court "war of experts" that cost state taxpayers $20,000, another witness said, "There appears to be one piece of data that is driving this, which is the fact that Ms. Coffel has a positive HIV status." Coffel has one shot, at a hearing this August, to win a second chance. If she loses, she could spend the rest of her life in solitary confinement in a state mental facility for sexual predators.
