The battle against Gannett's exclusive newspaper-distribution networks has heated up in the last two months, with Jackson Free Press and The Independent Weekly (Lafayette, La.) publishing details in their print editions, JFP launching a "Goliath blog" to track Gannett's progress in Mississippi, and Editor & Publisher covering the controversy in its latest issue. For anyone still confused about how the "networks" are harmful to alt-weeklies, Darren Schwindaman has explained the process in a cartoon (available here), which ran as a full page in JFP's print edition.

Continue ReadingGannett Distribution Networks for Dummies

The Weekly's editor in chief tells the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that his autonomy has decreased since the merger between New Times and Village Voice Media, but that he was not forced out by the new ownership. Berger has left the alt-weekly twice before, each time to be asked back. Berger announced his resignation July 3 on his blog. "I've been through four ownership groups, five publishers, and have seen the paper into the online era. Now we're six months into the Village Voice/New Times merger era, and I've decided it's time to be a free-range mossback again," he wrote.

Continue ReadingKnute Berger Leaves Seattle Weekly After 15 Years