As we reported last Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee has strongly passed a federal shield law known as the Free Flow of Information Act. Congressional leaders in the House of Representatives want to build on this momentum and bring the House version of the bill to the House floor for a vote on Tuesday, Oct. 16. The bill needs 218 votes to successfully pass on Tuesday. AAN is a member of the Shield Law Coalition, and urges its members to call their Representatives before Tuesday's vote -- please ask them to vote yes on H.R. 2102 and vote no on any amendments that would weaken its protections.
The ten young journalists who spent eight intensive weeks this summer at the Academy for Alternative Journalism at Medill School of Journalism were among the best that program director Charles Whitaker has seen, he tells AAN News. Two of them have already been offered jobs by AAN papers. This year also marks the first time the fellows have produced a website, rather than a print product. Whitaker says he hopes to grow the website as an alumni resource over the coming years.
"It's a testament to the unending dedication of [founding publisher] Amy Singmaster that she continued to take on such tasks as delivery and small-time sales some seven years into the paper's existence," writes editor Dan Cook. "But it also speaks to how long it actually took for Free Times to reach a solid footing." Like many AAN papers, the Columbia, S.C., alt-weekly began its life as a biweekly in 1987, and has only grown since then. In 2004, the paper was bought by Portico Publications, which also owns C-Ville Weekly and Metro Spirit. "Twenty years into its history, Free Times is stronger than it’s ever been, now publishing larger issues and more of them -- 40,000 copies -- than it ever has," Cook writes.
"Over the years, Willamette Week (now owned by the paper's editor and publisher) has benefited from the great generosity of many Portlanders and has been blessed by lots of luck," writes publisher Richard Meeker. "No outsider did more for us than Dennis Lindsay, a local lawyer who died Oct. 2 of complications from a stroke." Lindsay's donation of $6,000 gave founder Ron Buel the financial confidence to start the paper in 1974. Lindsay's law firm also served as general counsel for the paper from 1974 until the early '80s, and he was the first chair of the paper's board of directors.
The gesture by the Richmond, Va., alt-weekly celebrates an idea recently offered by Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors Chairman Kelly E. Miller, who suggests that the county make English its official language. "Unfortunately, we were unable to make the issue 100 percent in English," Style Weekly editor Jason Roop says. "But if Mr. Miller can bear with us, we are evolving. We are trying our best." The paper hit a snag on its path to full English immersion in its always-difficult food section. "It was unavoidable to write about Nate's Taco Truck ... without using the word 'taco,'" Roop says.
Bill Bleakley has published the Gazette since he founded it in 1979, and four years ago, he purchased OKCBusiness, a biweekly business newspaper. Now he has moved both of those publications, along with High Plains Events LLC, which organizes events for the papers and other groups, under the umbrella of Tierra Media Group. Bleakley will take the title of president of the new company. In a statement, he says the company does not plan to expand out of its current geographic area. "We don't consider ourselves a chain because everything we do relates to niches right here in Central Oklahoma," he says. "Oklahoma City is a very hot economy and we're positioned right in the middle of it with no intention of acquiring properties outside of this market." Bleakley serves on AAN's Board of Directors as the Organization/Bylaws Chair. In other Gazette news, the paper and High Plains Events have announced Oklahoma City's inaugural Halloween parade, Gazette's Ghouls Gone Wild, featuring a performance by the Flaming Lips (singer Wayne Coyne will be the parade's Grand Marshal). Filter magazine reports that the band is currently looking for 1,000 fans to take part in the March of a Thousand Flaming Skeletons at the parade. CORRECTION: We originally noted that the Halloween parade would include a performance by the Flaming Lips. That is incorrect -- the band will only be appearing and leading the skeleton march, not performing music.
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