Ruth Hammond will be stepping down as AAN's editorial director on Dec. 23 to take a job as a senior copy editor with The Chronicle of Higher Education. During her two years at AAN, Ruth participated in the launch of AltWeeklies.com and kept the site running; she also administered the AltWeekly Awards contest, including the contest's move to an online format last year. In reflecting on her work at AAN, Ruth says, "what strikes me most is how much teamwork went into all my projects."
Wayne Laugesen has drawn attention for his inflammatory Boulder Weekly columns (and, once, for smashing some windows). Now, the former Weekly editor hopes to draw listeners. According to a feature in Longmont, Colorado's Daily Times-Call, Laugesen "is building a sound studio in his Boulder County home at a cost of $10,000 to $15,000," in the hopes of launching money-making Catholic podcasts. Specifically, Laugesen is planning a talk show on which he'll debate "liberal journalist Pamela White"--the current editor of Boulder Weekly.
Derf (aka John Backderf) gets ideas for his cartoon through cultural osmosis. As he wanders around the city, he stumbles across all kinds of material. His award-winning cartoon, The City, is carried by alternative weeklies across the country. This is the 25th in a "How I Got That Story" series highlighting the AltWeekly Awards' first-place winners.
With his award-winning arts criticism in Madison's Isthmus, Kent Williams makes the case for the local critic: someone who will see The Passion of the Christ the way the community sees it, who will marvel at the complexity of the pipe organ in the local symphony hall, and who will notice the naked sculpture at the local museum that people have walked past all these years without ever really understanding her. This is the 24th in a "How I Got That Story" series highlighting the AltWeekly Awards' first-place winners.
