While he was still the governor of Arkansas, Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee arranged for the release of rapist Wayne Dumond, who murdered a woman in Missouri after getting out of jail. When Huckabee appeared on Meet the Press this weekend, he initially denied talking to the parole board about Dumond, but amended his statement when the host (pictured) responded incredulously. "(Russert) obviously had an Arkansas Times article detailing the meeting that led to Dumond’s release," reports the Arkansas Leader in an editorial urging Huckabee to exercise a little "humility." MORE HUCKABEE DISSEMBLING: The ex-governor lies about a report in the Arkansas Times about missing statehouse furniture.

Continue ReadingTim Russert Uses Arkansas Times Story to Trip Up Huckabee

Duke University senior Jeffrey Stern has been awarded the Melcher Family Award for Excellence in Journalism for a cover story he wrote for the North Carolina alt-weekly, reports Duke News. The story described the lives of three homeless men living in the woods on the outskirts of Durham, NC. Stern hatched the idea for the Indy piece after editor Richard Hart spoke to his journalism class. "Jeff is a monster, and I mean that in the best sense of word," says Hart. "Just as Michael Jordan uses every muscle in his body when he is focused on playing basketball, every ounce of Jeff is completely geared to going out and getting the story."

Continue ReadingStudent Journalist Wins Prize for Story in Independent Weekly

Mediaspan, which calls itself "the leading provider of digital content management and national advertising solutions for over 4,000 local media properties," yesterday announced the addition of several new clients, including AAN members Philadelphia City Paper, Austin Chronicle, San Antonio Current, Salt Lake City Weekly, Arkansas Times and Jackson Free Press. "Our drive to deliver new, national revenue for our affiliate partners goes hand-in-hand with our goal of meeting the demands of national advertisers who want to reach a specific local audience, in markets large and small, across multiple types of media," says a Mediaspan executive. "Whether advertisers seek online display ads on newspaper websites, pre-roll video on TV websites or online radio audio streams, we can deliver."

Continue ReadingOnline Ad Firm Signs Six Alt-Weekly Clients

An unusual series of ads attempting to "break perceptions that Toronto is a bland, uninteresting city," will run in eight alternative newspapers in U.S. border cities, reports CTV Toronto. "We're trying to do something a little different, we're trying to play around, we're trying to be playful," explains the program manager responsible for the offbeat ads, which compare Toronto favorably with other international destinations like New York and Paris. City councillor Michael Thompson isn't convinced. "We send a lot of trash to Michigan, and that's not the only thing, unfortunately, that we're sending," he tells CTV. "This is, in my view, it's trash."

Continue ReadingTourism Ads Placed in Alt-Weeklies Cause Stir in Toronto

Abitibi Consolidated, which hasn't seen a profit in two years, and Bowater, which has been losing money since 2001, announced their marriage yesterday. The new company, AbitibiBowater, faces a U.S. newsprint market that has declined by 26 percent since 1999, according to the New York Times. An industry expert tells The Times that she expects more consolidation in the industry, and she believes that paper mills being built in China might drive down prices in their bid to capture sales in North America.

Continue ReadingLeading Newsprint Manufacturers Merge

Late last year, Richard Diefenbach was suspended from his job in Newport, Ore., for five days without pay, and accused of racial discrimination and sexual harassment for sharing a copy of Gustavo Arellano's politically incorrect syndicated column with a co-worker. Diefenbach tells The Oregonian that the incident had a deleterious impact. "I have to weigh everything twice before I say it now," he says. "I felt like my organization branded me as something I am not, a racist and a sexist -- a horrible person." Arellano says "Ask a Mexican!" is now syndicated in 21 weeklies with a combined readership of 1.3 million. CORRECTION: Arellano tells us his column is syndicated in papers with a combined circulation (i.e., not readership) of 1.3 million.

Continue Reading‘Ask a Mexican!’ Kerfuffle Leaves Employee ‘Feeling Leery and Hurt’

Seven Days' Peter Freyne was recently diagnosed with lymphoma and immediately began chemotherapy treatments. He blogged about this turn of events prior to being admitted to the hospital, and his post has attracted dozens of comments, making it a virtual get-well-soon card. Most of the comments are from readers and fans, but several state politicians and even the deputy police chief of Vermont's largest city have weighed in to wish him well, says Seven Days' online editor, Cathy Resmer. Freyne has been writing about Vermont politics since the state's new, socialist senator Bernie Sanders won his first term as mayor of Burlington in 1981. He brought his popular column to Seven Days shortly after the paper was founded in 1995.

Continue ReadingAlt-Weekly Political Columnist Blogs About Cancer Diagnosis