AAN News

New Haven, Hartford, Fairfield Advocates Merged with Entertainment Weekly

Tribune Co. subsidiary CT1 Media has merged its three Connecticut alt-weeklies — Hartford Advocate, New Haven Advocate, and Fairfield County Weekly — with the entertainment weekly previously published by the daily Hartford Courant. (FULL STORY)
New Mass Media  |  12-03-2013  11:30 am  |  Industry News

Tribune Co. Lays Off New Mass. Media Employees, Group Publishernew

The Tribune Company has laid off New Mass. Media group publisher Joshua Mamis along with two graphic designers. The company publishes publishes the Fairfield County Weekly, Hartford Advocate, and New Haven Advocate.
New Haven Independent  |  07-11-2011  12:41 pm  |  Industry News

Recession Brings Both Clouds and Silver Linings to New Haven Advocatenew

That's what the Yale Daily News finds in a report on how three local news organizations are faring in the downturn. While the Advocate's "circulation is steady," as managing editor John Stoehr points out, publisher Joshua Mamis admits that the paper's page count has decreased. Mamis also notes that although the paper has lost some national advertisers, many local advertisers have remained loyal.
Yale Daily News  |  10-16-2009  12:04 pm  |  Industry News

Connecticut Alt-Weeklies Outsource This Week's Issue

When a news website in Pasadena made headlines last year for its decision to outsource City Hall coverage to reporters in India, the group managing editor of the Hartford Advocate, New Haven Advocate and Fairfield County Weekly wondered if his three alt-weeklies could do the same thing. While John Adamian's idea started as a joke, it quickly led to an actual exercise in outsourcing journalism -- and the results are this week's papers, which have been mostly generated by Indian freelancers. The papers say the experiment proves that outsourcing a local newspaper is possible, but not recommended. "Call us old-school, but we think good, old-fashioned shoe-leather journalism is worth the price," the staff writes in an editors' note. "Outsourcing could certainly fill pages, probably very cheaply, but what's lost is the very essence of local newspapers: presence." (FULL STORY)
New Mass. Media Press Release  |  05-27-2009  9:16 am  |  Press Releases

Advocate Freelancer Weighs in on Tribune Bankruptcy Filingnew

"What does this mean for the Advocates? Who the fuck knows? We're so low in the Tribune food chain that we're not even mentioned in the annual reports," writes Christopher Arnott, who spent 17 years as an Advocate staffer before going full-time freelance. "The Advocate's sucked it up before and [stayed] alive in hard times. Let's hope the corporation gives it the chance to do it again."
New Haven Advocate  |  12-09-2008  9:12 am  |  Industry News

Tribune Co. Reportedly Considering Bankruptcy Filingnew

The embattled Tribune Company, which owns three AAN papers, has hired an investment bank and law firm in recent days to advise the company on a possible trip through Chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to the Wall Street Journal. Tribune owns the Fairfield County Weekly, Hartford Advocate and New Haven Advocate. Sources tell the Journal that a filing could come as early as this week. UPDATE (4:05 pm): The company did indeed file for bankruptcy protection today, and will stop making interest payments on $12 billion in debt as it attempts to restructure its loans, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The Wall Street Journal  |  12-08-2008  9:54 am  |  Industry News

Fairfield County Weekly Combines Offices with New Haven Advocatenew

To save costs in an ever-tightening economy, two of the three New Mass. Media papers will now share office space in New Haven. Staff members have been given laptops and cellphones and will seemingly be traveling in the Fairfield County area -- about 20 miles from New Haven -- quite a bit.
Fairfield County Weekly  |  11-05-2008  11:56 am  |  Industry News

New Haven Tables News Box Legislationnew

"A City Hall proposal to group news boxes together in new kiosks ran into a barrage of criticism from media representatives and elected officials Monday night at the Board of Aldermen's Legislation Committee, which tabled the proposal," the New Haven Independent reports. New Haven Advocate publisher Josh Mamis spoke at the meeting, telling the committee that the proposal's prioritization of daily papers over weeklies is a restriction of freedom of speech, according to the Independent. He also complained about the way the city handled the issue, claiming that he wasn't even aware of news rack problems in New Haven. "I've never fielded a complaint," he told the committee. "If there are problems I'd love to hear about them." The ordinance will reportedly be revisited after more input from local media is obtained.
New Haven Independent  |  05-14-2008  3:24 pm  |  Legal News

New Haven Considers News Box Legislationnew

The city's Board of Aldermen is currently considering an ordinance that would require news organizations to obtain permits to place news boxes in public areas, the New Haven Advocate reports. Publishers would pay $25 for a three-year permit, and $12 per box. "In this climate, every dollar counts," Advocate publisher Josh Mamis says. He says that the new fees could lead to publishers having to pull distribution in areas with the least pick-up. "It's an issue of getting information to all the people of the city," says Mamis. Under the proposed legislation, the power to remove boxes deemed "obstructions" to the right of way would fall to the Public Works Department, which also worries Mamis. "You have to be concerned with the implications of that, should you be aggressively covering the Department of Public Works or the administration," he says.
New Haven Advocate  |  04-29-2008  8:46 am  |  Industry News

Former New Haven Advocate Editor Launches Book Reviewnew

"We'll be excited if people just read it," Mark Oppenheimer says about the debut issue of The New Haven Review of Books. The publication's 300 copies are available only at a local bookstore, given away free with a purchase, but all of the contents are also available free online, Business New Haven reports. Oppenheimer leans on Connecticut alt-weekly colleagues in the inaugural issue: it features work by former Advocate scribe Paul Bass and Fairfield County Weekly editor Tom Gogola. "We have no funding, which is by design," Oppenheimer says, noting that he's currently looking for a sponsor to cover the printing costs of a next issue. "I wanted to do something that was very independent, very do-it-yourself."
Business New Haven  |  08-23-2007  8:43 am  |  Industry News

New Haven Advocate 'Considering' Running Front-Page Ad Stickersnew

"Perhaps figuring that pop-up ads have desensitized the public to intrusions on their reading space, more and more newspapers across the nation are opting to move advertising to the front page, above the fold, in the form of annoying post-it notes," Evan Brown writes in the Advocate. The Advocate's parent-paper the Hartford Courant is already running the ads, and, according to Advocate publisher Joshua Mamis, the alt-weekly is looking at ways to "creatively" use them.
New Haven Advocate  |  07-24-2007  8:12 am  |  Industry News

New Haven Advocate Wins Anti-Gun Bumper Sticker Contestnew

When the Advocate staff learned that the New Haven Police Department was holding a bumper sticker contest to advertise its gun hotline, they kicked around dozens of ideas, riffing on common bumper stickers. Ultimately, the paper decided to submit two: "My child is an Honor Student ... who hasn't learned how to fire a gun," and "I'd rather NOT be shooting a gun." The latter beat out 24 other slogans in votes cast by around 200 cops, the Hartford Courant reports. Advocate staff writer Chris Arnott wrote the text and production manager Matthew Ford did the design, according to the New Haven Independent. "This is a genuine thing," Arnott said at a press conference unveiling the stickers. "Not a snarky Advocate thing."
Hartford Courant | New Haven Independent  |  07-17-2007  11:22 am  |  Industry News

Recently Passed News Box Legislation in Connecticut Favors Dailiesnew

The City Council of West Haven voted unanimously in favor of Councilwoman Gail Burns' proposal to limit how many news boxes can go on a block, and it was signed into law earlier this month. When space is an issue, "dailies get first dibs, then twice-weeklies, then weeklies and so on," according to the Advocate. The law seems to have been thought up, drafted and passed in haste, as Burns tells the Advocate no one did an inventory of the boxes, and no one bothered to notify any of publishers before the law was passed. "Anyone can attend a public hearing," Burns says. The law "flies in the face of the First Amendment," Advocate publisher Joshua Mamis says. "Plus, the prioritization is puzzling. Why would the town give preferential treatment to a publication owned by an out-of-state company that has over the years reduced its commitment to local news gathering?"
New Haven Advocate (fourth item)  |  04-25-2007  7:50 am  |  Industry News

Andy Bromage Named Managing Editor of New Haven Advocate

New Haven Advocate nabs ace reporter from local daily (FULL STORY)
New Haven Advocate Press Release  |  09-13-2006  12:06 pm  |  Press Releases

Porn and Counter-Pornnew

In the Jan. 26 issue of New Haven Advocate, three writers engage in a debate on alt-weeklies' connection to pornography. In "Porn Free," Carole Bass questions why alt-weeklies "reflexively pimp for porn." Ryan Kearney and Tom Gogola provide counterpoints in "Porn Goes Public" and "Slings and Eros."
New Haven Advocate  |  01-27-2006  12:31 am  |  Industry News

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