Conor Friedersdorf, in his annual roundup of the year's best journalism, spotlights two very different pieces from alt-weeklies as exemplary work. First, Mark Groubert's "Box of Broken Dreams," which appeared in LA Weekly in January, gets a nod for "Exceptional Storytelling," along with pieces from This American Life, the Washington Post and Esquire. Meanwhile, Matt Taibbi's New York Press takedown of Thomas Friedman -- "Flat N All That" -- gets the nod for "Best Rant," with Friedersdorf writing that it puts Friedman "so far up a creek he'll need three shovels and a steering wheel to spelunk himself out."
While its sister paper Seattle Weekly counts rockers Krist Novoselic (of Nirvana fame) and Duff McKagan (from Guns N' Roses) as columnists, Miami New Times has brought on Luther Campbell, the former leader of raunch-rappers 2 Live Crew, to write a column. "It's the perfect place for me. I am a free-speech guy," Campbell says. "It's just a match made in Heaven. Can you believe that? Me turned loose on the world in New Times. Wow."
As the 2010 Winter Olympics enter their final week, Vancouver's alt-weekly continues to work round-the-clock to cover both the games themselves, as well as all the cultural and entertainment happenings coinciding with the international competition. Straight editor Charlie Smith tells AAN News that they opted not to produce any special print editions, and have had to actually tweak their print distribution strategies in light of the influx of people and numerous street closings. Online, though, he says the Straight has been going all out, with nearly all of the editorial staff covering some aspect of the games, including stories that have been picked up in Europe. The paper's running all Olympic coverage through a main Olympic portal, and it is also running a dedicated Olympics blog and featuring numerous Olympic photo galleries. Smith says the comprehensive coverage has translated to a "huge spike" in web traffic. "In the first week, traffic was up more than 100 percent," he says.
NUVO's Jim Poyser has a side project with longtime friend Michael Jensen, a website -- ApocaDocs.com -- that aims to bring humor to "the horror of environmental collapse." Now the duo have released a free book, Converging Emergencies: 2010-2020. "Global warming and industrial toxins are combining to create a fragile environment, yet in some parts of the world, the status quo still seems OK," a release announcing the book reads, "thus need to educate -- via entertainment -- about our planet-wide predicament." MORE: Poyser tells AAN News that the ApocaDocs are offering their weekly PANIQuiz feature, free of charge, to any AAN member papers who may be interested.
"Those geniuses at NPR, the network that thinks Garrison Keillor and Mo Rocca are the height of hilarity, have shamelessly ripped off ¡Ask a Mexican! to start a new feature, Ask an Arab," Gustavo Arellano writes. "Oh, and before anyone begins leaving comments about me being so petty and me ripping off 'Ask a Black Dude,' I preface this post with a classic quote from Krusty the Clown: 'If this is anyone but Steve Allen, you've stolen my bit!'"
The offices of Worcester Mag were broken into and robbed Tuesday night. "They stole at least one laptop that we know about so far, and some cash," said publisher Gareth Charter says. "It's unfortunate timing because we don't keep much cash on hand typically. They got us in between daily bank deposits." Worcester police are investigating the crime.
The Richmond alt-weekly has fired staff reporter Chris Dovi after Dovi accidentally sent an email meant for his editor, which referred to a blind motivational speaker a "blind [expletive]," to the speaker's public relations representative. Dovi tells the Richmond Times-Dispatch his language sprang from his frustration with the PR rep's frequent calls and emails about a potential story, but says he's "not making excuses." He adds: "I shouldn't have been flip." Style Weekly editor Jason Roop and publisher Lori Waran, in a joint statement, say Dovi's language "violated the core values" of the paper. "It showed an unacceptable disregard for one of our chief missions at Style: to honor diversity as a company in all of our dealings with the community, and within Style's hallways." MORE: Washington City Paper's Andrew Beaujon says Style "decided to assuage an awkward situation by cutting off a talented reporter at the knees."
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