• The Mountain Xpress is ending its 14-year run as a print publication today, "suspending its regular online news reports and converting its entire news operation to Twitter dispatches from staff and trusted community journalists."
  • The San Francisco Bay Guardian has settled its lawsuit with Village Voice Media, agreeing to drop its legal action and "shut the fuck up" about PG&E, sunshine, media concentration, rent control, and over-development.
  • Publisher Sally Freeman has sold the Boise Weekly to N-Corp-Al, which quickly shut the alt-weekly down and relaunched it as the Treasure Valley Weekly Post.
  • The Washington City Paper has relaunched as the Huffington City Paper.
  • Salt Lake City Weekly announced it has purchased SLUG magazine and will bring new features like "Cute Baby of the Month" and "Those Wacky Pets" to the long-running local underground-music magazine.
  • Athens, Ga., alt-weekly Flagpole has relaunched as "a celebrity 'zine about fun and style, now to be known as Starpole."
  • The East Bay Express is changing editorial course, introducing new procedures like "user-generated copyediting" and "reader-assigned stories."

Continue ReadingAAN Members Across the Country Unveil Major Changes

Democratic state delegate Joseph D. Morrissey has filed a $10.35 million libel suit against Style Weekly for an article the alt-weekly published last April about the politician's finances and related legal battles. The suit, which seeks $10 million in compensatory damages and $350,000 in punitive damages, names Style's parent company, TWCC Holding Corp., along with editor Jason Roop and the story's authors, Amy Biegelsen and Chris Dovi. When contacted on Monday by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Roop said he hadn't seen the suit and therefore couldn't comment on it.

Continue ReadingPolitician Sues Style Weekly

Seattle Weekly, The Village Voice and Westword have all won 2008 Prevention for a Safer Society (PASS) Awards, which honor journalists "who try to focus America's attention on our criminal justice system, juvenile justice system, and child welfare systems in a thoughtful and considerate manner." The awards are sponsored by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency.

Continue ReadingThree VVM Papers Win Criminal Justice Reporting Awards