Thomas Van Flein issued a four-page letter on Saturday denying there was a brewing scandal behind Palin's decision to resign her gubernatorial office a day earlier. What's more, the statement put the media on notice that the Palin team would file defamation lawsuits against media outlets that repeated allegations about a possible scandal centered around a building contractor with close ties to the Palins. In a footnote, Van Flein points out these "insinuations" were published in the "left wing Village Voice" in an October 2008 story by Wayne Barrett. The piece examined links between Palin and several contractors who worked on a sports complex as part of a deeper look at Palin's previous record. "Van Flein's statement -- which derides 'modern journalism' for 'abhorring' due diligence and factchecking -- is actually longer than the section of the Voice story that examined the connections around the complex," Barrett writes, "but he does not challenge a single fact actually presented in our story."

Continue ReadingSarah Palin’s Attorney Takes a Swing at the Village Voice

"When David Brewster started the Weekly, I thought it was a fabulous idea because Seattle didn't have anything like the New Yorker but it's a rather sophisticated city," Alan Furst told The Stranger in an interview last month. Furst says that when Brewster approached him about writing for the paper, he was told he could write about anything, so he decided he wanted to write a football column. "The Nordstrom family had just bought the franchise for the Seahawks, and they brought in and unwrapped a brand-new team and there I was up in the press box, eating free hot dogs. It was great!"

Continue ReadingNovelist Remembers the Early Days of the Seattle Weekly

That's the impression that BNET's David Weir got at last month's AAN Convention. "As those big guys crumble, it's an opportunity for us," an unnamed publisher tells him. "We know that they are stuck halfway between print and the web. And now they have to figure out what to do about mobile. They have far more resources than we do, but they also are much more bureaucratic."

Continue ReadingAlts ‘More Nimble’ Than Dailies When it Comes to Social Media

The Louisville alt-weekly won a total of 18 awards in the 2009 Metro Journalism Awards, sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists Louisville Chapter. LEO, which was competing in the Metro Newspapers/Wire Services division, finished first in five categories: Column Writing, Feature Photography, Feature Writing, Health Reporting and Review/Criticism (which it swept).

Continue ReadingLEO Weekly Fares Well at Local SPJ Awards

The Massachusetts alt-weekly unveils a new format today with more color pages and a stapled bind. Savvy readers may also notice that the publication's title is five letters shorter: Worcester Mag is the official title of the paper now. "We are embracing the abbreviation so many readers have used for years," publisher Gareth Charter says. "We are not a magazine in the traditional sense of that term. We are an alternative news voice; in print once a week and online 24/7."

Continue ReadingWorcester Magazine Debuts New Design and Format, Shortens Name