The category is off more than 50 percent this year, says AWN's Mark Hanzlik, who expects cig ads to remain in the ashcan for the foreseeable future. We already knew it, but now everyone else does too, since Frank Lewis reported it in the Philadelphia City Paper.
The National Press Club recognizes the Boston Phoenix media critic for his work in 2000, which the Phoenix says "ranged from local media stories to analyses of national and international events such as the presidential campaign and violence in the Middle East."
The results are in for the 2001 Alternative Newsweekly Awards, and Gambit Weekly is this year's big winner with nine prize-winning entries. Meanwhile, Texas Observer Editor Nate Blakeslee collected the most awards-booty among individual contenders, with winning entries in three separate categories. But hold the champagne corks for a couple of weeks: The order of finish won't be announced until July 12, during the annual awards lunch in New Orleans.
Peter Noel says he was kicked out of the Hip-Hop Summit, an event Def Jam founder Russell Simmons helped organize at the New York Hilton. Noel tells the Daily News' Mitchell Fink that he was barred from the meeting because Simmons didn't want him there. "When Russell found out I was a part of (a media panel on mainstream press hip-hop coverage) he went off." Simmons says nothing could be further from the truth.
TIMELY ANNOUNCEMENT: Seattle Times Cashing in on Soaring Property Values?
Award-winning Miami New Times reporter Tristram Korten is being considered for a job with the Miami-Dade Office of Inspector General, which sniffs out corruption in county government. "I'm down with their agenda," Korten tells the Daily Business Review.
Brooklyn and Queens are about to get their own alternative weekly, say James Morrow, Erin Franzman and Mike Vago. The three are preparing an August launch of New York Metropolis, which, according to the New York Post, "will run on a basic alternative weekly model of a small editorial and design team complimented by freelancers and supported by local advertisers." Morrow is executive editor of the Webzine Ironminds, where Franzman is a writer.
