Las Vegas CityLife, Las Vegas Weekly and the Reno News & Review took home a total of 74 awards at the annual Better Newspaper Contest put on by the Nevada Press Association. CityLife won 34 awards, with 16 first-place finishes; the News & Review won 28 awards, including 11 firsts; and the Weekly won 12 awards, four of which were first-place.

Continue ReadingNevada Alt-Weeklies Win Big in State Press Contest

Earlier this month, AAN's news portal website AltWeeklies.com launched two new ways for readers to check out the great work featured on the site. Now, in addition to the site's myriad (and customizable) RSS feeds, Twitter users can sign up to receive all News and/or Culture headlines from the site in an automated feed. To see the feeds in action or to sign up as a follower, visit AltWeeklyCulture and AltWeeklyNews on Twitter. All the while, AAN's main Twitter account will continue to highlight at least one significant story on AltWeeklies.com each day.

Continue ReadingAltWeeklies.com Launches Twitter Headline Feeds

The Courthouse News Services reports that Andrew Diodati has sued the Weekly, publisher Tom Lee and a staff writer for allegedly defaming him in a July story in which a former client and her new lawyer accused Diodati of botching a fraud case and overcharging the government. Diodati claims the story spurred investigations by Pima County and the State Bar of Arizona, and that his "reputation has been severely damaged." He is seeking $2.75 million in damages to make up for what he says was the Weekly's "reckless disregard for the truth." Reached by email, attorney D. Douglas Metcalf, who is representing the paper, says they "have no comment other than to say that the Weekly intends to defend the suit vigorously."

Continue ReadingDefense Attorney Sues Tucson Weekly for Defamation

Writing on AOL's Digital City, Carly Milne says "usually it's universally accepted that having the cojones to stand on a soapbox and really, creatively say what you're feeling is one requirement," before giving shout-outs to AAN and six alt-weeklies.

Continue ReadingWhat Makes a Good Alt-Weekly?

Attorney General Eric Holder has laid out out new procedures that will "provide greater accountability and ensure the state secrets privilege is invoked only when necessary and in the narrowest way possible." Open government advocates like OMB Watch and Sen. Patrick Leahy have "expressed cautious optimism" about the policy, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press reports. Secrecy News also has a mixed reaction, saying the policy "includes procedural and substantive changes to current practice," but "it reserves decisions over the exercise of the privilege to the executive branch, and it appears to have garbled its treatment of judicial review."

Continue ReadingJustice Department Unveils New Policy on State Secrets

Reid, whose "The Boiling Point" comic appears in Metro Times and other AAN member papers, has been elected Vice President of the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC) Board of Directors. Ted Rall, who was elected president last year, will move into the Immediate Past President role, while V.C. Rogers, the cartoonist at North Carolina's Independent Weekly, remains the group's Secretary-Treasurer.

Continue ReadingMikhaela Reid Elected VP of Editorial Cartoonists’ Association

The Charlottesville, Va., alt-weekly is marking the occasion by taking a look back at some of the memorable moments since the paper launched in 1989. The staff has compiled some of the hits and misses, while co-founder Bill Chapman takes a walk down memory lane in this video tour of the eight buildings that have called C-Ville home over the last 20 years.

Continue ReadingC-Ville Weekly Celebrates 20th Anniversary