Mobile publishing company Verve Wireless today announced its end of year milestones, noting that 100 million mobile news pages were served in December 2009 -- a 160 percent increase year over year. The company says local news continues to be the most accessed mobile content, but that breaking world or national stories -- like the death of Michael Jackson, for example -- are driving the largest traffic spikes. Verve also notes that mobile video is a growing field, with viewership growing by 106 percent in the past three months.

Continue ReadingVerve Wireless: Mobile News Access Growing; Local News Most Popular

Mara Shalhoup, who was named the paper's new editor-in-chief last month, says she hopes to eventually bring back the investigative pieces and longer stories that have mostly disappeared from the alt-weekly. "The in-depth, investigative pieces, they take time, and they take resources, and right now those are two things that can be of short supply," she tells the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "We were under the gun to build page views and have a bigger presence online. We couldn't do both at the same time." Shalhoup also notes that she will likely be hiring more staff soon, a move that CL's new ownership team says it fully supports.

Continue ReadingNew Creative Loafing (Atlanta) Editor Talks About What’s Ahead

"Scott Brown Wins Mass. Race, Giving GOP 41-59 Majority in the Senate." This Voice headline on the day after Brown won the Senate seat vacated by the late Ted Kennedy caught the eyes of many observers at the time, and now the president himself has referenced it. "There was apparently a headline after the Massachusetts election," Obama said in remarks to Senate Democrats, according to Talking Points Memo. "The Village Voice announced that Republicans win a 41-59 majority. It's worth thinking about. We still have to lead."

Continue ReadingPresident Obama Quotes Village Voice Headline

A California appellate court has ruled that a lawsuit by indie rock musicians against Rolling Stone over an article that was surrounded by a fold-out ad for Camel cigarettes should be dismissed under the state anti-SLAPP statute. AAN, along with several other media organizations, filed an amicus brief last summer in support of Rolling Stone in the case.

Continue ReadingRolling Stone Wins Anti-SLAPP Decision in Misappropriation Suit

San Dieguito Printers has filed a lawsuit in San Diego Superior Court alleging that the Reader breached a contract between the two parties when it switched to a new printer at the beginning of this year. The printing company says it signed a 10-year contract to be the Reader's exclusive printer in 2005. The suit names Reader publisher Jim Holman -- both as a person and as a business -- as the defendant, rather than the Reader, as the printing company argues that the paper is being operated as a sole proprietorship.

Continue ReadingPrinter Sues San Diego Reader for Breach of Contract

Tom Scocca, Tony Millionaire, Dina Kelberman, Benn Ray and Emily Flake have written a letter to City Paper asking the paper to bring back Larnell Custis Butler's "Just Ask Larnell" strip, the most recent winner of the alt-weekly's comics contest. The writers, all of them judges in the contest, allege that the paper "broke the terms of the contest" by dropping the strip before its promised year run was up. But editor Lee Gardner begs to differ. "Contest winner or not, Ms. Butler's comic became part of City Paper's weekly editorial content, and each aspect of that content runs or not at my discretion," he responds. "She will receive full payment for a year's run. I have a good deal of regard and respect for Ms. Butler, but I stand by my decision."

Continue ReadingBaltimore City Paper Comics Contest Judges Want Winning Comic Back