This weekend marks the first performances of Shannon Wheeler's "Too Much Coffee Man Opera" outside of his hometown of Portland, Ore., where it premiered last year. Wheeler, who received an honorable mention in this year's AltWeekly Awards, says after being prodded to turn his comic strip into a opera by a friend, it was a dream in which a character sang an aria that sealed the deal. "I woke up and thought, Why am I fighting this?," he tells the San Diego Union-Tribune. "It's an opportunity to learn new things." Thus far, response to the opera has been overwhelmingly positive, and Wheeler is already planning an as-yet-untitled sequel to hit the stage next year in Portland.
Friday, July 27 is the deadline for early registration and hotel rates for the Alternative Journalism Workshop for Writers and Designers to be held Aug. 10-11 in Evanston, Ill. Speakers include Poynter writing coach Chip Scanlan, journalist-author Alex Kotlowitz and Visual Editors' Robb Montgomery, and for the first time ever, the conference will include a separate program for design staff. Lunch and dinner on Saturday are included in the $75 AAN member early-registration rate.
CEO Ben Eason tells Editor & Publisher he's not sure if the now-six paper chain will continue to use the Alternative Weekly Network (AWN) for national ad sales or switch over to the competing Ruxton Group, which currently handles ad sales for the Chicago Reader and Washington City Paper. "We have been longtime AWN folks," he says. Ruxton, which was founded by the Reader, is now owned by Village Voice Media. Eason says figuring this out is one of his top priorities. He also tells E&P that strength in the national ad market is a key aspect of this week's deal. "Now with Chicago and D.C., all of the sudden you have enough critical mass and it becomes a go-to place for ad agencies on Madison Avenue," he says.
The Reader's Michael Miner reports that Ben Eason didn't focus on editorial matters in Wednesday's meeting, but rather on "web opportunities, regaining ground lost to Craiglist in classified advertising, and the efficiencies of centralizing the design work in Atlanta," a change Miner notes "is likely to cost a dozen or so Reader employees their jobs." After the meeting, when Miner asked Eason about editorial, he said "it's everything" -- but Miner isn't so sure that's Creative Loafing's approach. He thinks the Creative Loafing papers' design "doesn't respect the stories it ought to serve. If the centralized design staff makes this the look of the Reader ... I think readers will judge it as antithetical to what they've understood the Reader to be." According to Miner, Creative Loafing will turn the Reader into a one-section tabloid, a change the old owners were also planning.
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