AAN News
Oregon Dems Now Team Up with The Portland Mercurynew
The Mercury is the new co-sponsor of an inauguration party with the Oregon Democratic Party, a few weeks after the Willamette Week backed out of the gig, citing journalistic ethics. "We're an alternative paper and we make a promise that we're going to be accurate and fair," Mercury editor Wm. Steven Humphrey tells the Oregonian. "So if the Republicans ever manage to elect an awesome president, we'll sponsor their party too." On the Mercury's blog, Humphrey puts it this way: "Anyone who thinks it's unethical can stay home."
The Oregonian | The Portland Mercury |
01-07-2009 1:26 pm |
Industry News
Willamette Week Drops Sponsorship of Inauguration Partynew
Editor Mark Zusman tells the Oregonian that WW is no longer involved with a Jan. 20 party the paper was slated to co-sponsor with the Democratic Party of Oregon. Zusman said earlier this week that he didn't know the paper was co-sponsoring the event with the Dems until the Oregonian brought it to his attention. The story hit Capitol Hill yesterday, with Republicans telling Roll Call that the co-sponsored party, together with WW's tough reporting on outgoing Senator Gordon Smith during this campaign season, was proof that the paper "was on a mission to oust the Senator."
The Oregonian |
12-19-2008 3:41 pm |
Industry News
Alt-Weekly Takes Heat for Co-Sponsoring Inauguration Party with Demsnew
"Put it this way, if The Oregonian cosponsored an inaugural party celebrating any politician's victory, you can be sure Willamette Week would be all over it," writes Oregonian political correspondent Jeff Mapes. The party in question is the "Change Is Here Dance Party" at a local club, which is set to take place Jan. 20 and is cosponsored by the Democratic Party of Oregon and the Portland alt-weekly. But WW editor Mark Zusman tells the Oregonian he didn't even know about the joint-sponsored party. He says that he thought that the night was to feature two back-to-back parties, not one co-sponsored event. "For the record, I don't like what we have done," Zusman says. "At all."
The Oregonian |
12-18-2008 9:05 am |
Industry News
Willamette Week Honors This Year's Skidmore Prize Winnersnew
For the past five years, as part of its annual Give!Guide, which this year features 55 worthy Portland nonprofits, the paper has honored young nonprofit leaders with the Skidmore Prize. At a ceremony last week, the four recipients (Katy Kolker, Amy Harwood, Rodolfo Serna and Polly Bangs) each got a plaque and a check for $4,000 from WW publisher Richard Meeker and Multnomah County Commissioner Ted Wheeler. Read more about the honorees and their work here.
Willamette Week |
11-25-2008 8:42 am |
Industry News
Willamette Week Tightens Belt, but Santa Fe Reporter is 'Doing Well'new
In his yearly report to readers, Willamette Week publisher Richard Meeker says the Portland, Ore., newsweekly's financial situation has been "lousy." Advertising is down since July and the paper is more than ten percent below budget for the year. But the news isn't all bad. Meeker says WW's "total audience has remained steady" and its sister paper, the Santa Fe Reporter, is having a good year. Nevertheless, WW has laid off several staffers and transferred one staff writer to Santa Fe. Editor Mark Zusman tells AAN News that the paper laid off three classified sales representatives, one designer, and staff writer (and "Queer Window" columnist) Byron Beck, while Corey Pein moves to the Reporter. Although the paper will "be lucky to eke out a small profit this year," Meeker says he and Zusman are "eager to tackle the challenges we all now face, and more committed than ever to continuing -- and improving -- the quality of reporting and thinking we do." More on Beck's departure from the Portland Mercury and Just Out magazine.
Willamette Week |
11-12-2008 8:33 am |
Industry News
Portland's Rival Alt-Weeklies Team Up in Court and Win Shield Casenew
On Feb. 1, someone named "Ronald" posted a comment about a local businessman named Terry Beard on
both the Portland Mercury and Willamette Week websites. Ronald's message "was Greek to me," the Mercury's Amy Ruiz writes, "but Terry Beard sure didn't appreciate it." He took both papers to court to get them to reveal the anonymous commenter's IP address. The papers' attorneys fought the motion, arguing that Oregon's Media Shield Law protects the information. The plaintiff's lawyer countered by contending that the shield law only applies to news gathering, not the passive reception of information. On Monday, Judge James E. Redman sided with the papers, and agreed that the IP address was protected under the state shield law. However, he noted that "if the comment had been totally unrelated to the blog post," then the shield law might not have applied.
The Portland Mercury |
10-02-2008 9:17 am |
Legal News
Alt-Weekly Reports U.S. Senator's Company Hires Illegal Immigrantsnew
Willamette Week's cover story this week reports that Republican U.S. Senator Gordon Smith's frozen food processing company employs undocumented immigrants, which is a violation of federal law. The Oregonian reports that Smith has said that he has told his firm, Smith Frozen Foods, to "go the extra mile" in ensuring that its work force is legal, and he reacted harshly to WW's piece yesterday. "It is wholly compromised of unsubstantiated and ridiculous allegations from a liberal tabloid whose purpose is to advance a left-wing agenda rather than the truth," Smith said in a statement. But WW editor Mark Zusman tells Politicker OR that no such agenda exists. "There is no purpose other than to seek to tell the truth about an important story," he says. "It's not unusual for a food processing plant to hire illegal immigrants as workers. But this is unusual because Smith is a United States senator." The WW story didn't offer definitive proof, but cited several workers who said illegal immigrants worked there. "We would not have published this story had we not been comfortable with the underlying issue -- that Smith had illegal workers," Zusman says.
The Oregonian | Politicker OR |
09-11-2008 12:10 pm |
Industry News
MusicfestNW Now Third-Largest Indoor Music Festival in U.S.
The 2008 installment of Willamette Week's annual festival, held last Wednesday through Sunday, drew some 15,000 attendees to hear 218 bands at 47 shows, according to a WW press release. The only indoor festivals that remain larger are SxSW and CMJ. Performers this year included Built to Spill, Vampire Weekend, TV on the Radio, Mogwai, M. Ward, Les Savy Fav, Battles and Ratatat. "Portland proved, for the third year in a row that people here come out to support great music," says MusicfestNW executive director Trevor Solomon.
(FULL STORY)
Willamette Week Press Release |
09-10-2008 8:04 am |
Press Releases
Willamette Week Revelation Spurs Front-Page Washington Post Storynew
A couple of weeks ago the Portland alt-weekly broke the news that former Oregon GOP boss Craig Berkman has been giving generously to Republicans -- including Sen. John McCain -- despite claiming to be millions of dollars in debt. On Wednesday, the Washington Post turned its attention to Berkman and expanded upon the story. The McCain campaign tells the Post that they've donated Berkman's money to charity and will urge the RNC to do the same, but that doesn't placate some Berkman critics. "He used political donations and the doors those opened to build a web like a spider," says Jordan Schnitzer, the head of an Oregon investment firm who says Berkman duped him. "Someone should ask John McCain, 'With all these folks in your campaign, you couldn't put his name into Google?'"
Willamette Week | The Washington Post |
07-24-2008 4:04 pm |
Industry News
Tags: Willamette Week
Former Willamette Week Film Critic D.K. Holm Battles Cancernew
The Vancouver Voice |
05-15-2008 9:09 am |
Industry News
Tags: Editorial, Willamette Week
Willamette Week Raises More Than Half a Million Dollars for Nonprofitsnew
"You made so many donations to our annual Give!Guide that we're just now finishing the tallies and making final deliveries of incentives," writes publisher Richard Meeker. The 2007 installment of the paper's annual fund-raising endeavor produced more than $518,000 for 49 nonprofits in the Portland area, more than doubling 2006's total of $228,000.
Willamette Week |
01-24-2008 12:13 pm |
Industry News
Willamette Week Publisher: We're Enjoying Great Healthnew
In his annual report to readers, Richard Meeker says that despite "the gloom-and-doom reports" on newspapers across the country, Willamette Week's story in 2007 "is anything but a tale from the crypt." He notes that "this will be the paper's best year ever in display sales," with sales up 7.6 percent over 2006. And although classifieds continue to decline, with sales down about $115,000, total revenue at the paper is expected to be up 4 or 5 percent from last year, with pre-tax profit expected to be about 5 percent. "If [the paper was] owned by a media conglomerate, co-owner Mark Zusman and I would have been relieved of our responsibilities long ago for unsatisfactory financial performance," Meeker writes. "While we certainly could be a little more efficient, we feel it would seriously harm the culture of our operation to try to match national averages calling for profits two to three times greater than ours."
Willamette Week |
11-15-2007 9:08 am |
Industry News
Dennis Lindsay, Willamette Week's First Investor, Diesnew
"Over the years, Willamette Week (now owned by the paper's editor and publisher) has benefited from the great generosity of many Portlanders and has been blessed by lots of luck," writes publisher Richard Meeker. "No outsider did more for us than Dennis Lindsay, a local lawyer who died Oct. 2 of complications from a stroke." Lindsay's donation of $6,000 gave founder Ron Buel the financial confidence to start the paper in 1974. Lindsay's law firm also served as general counsel for the paper from 1974 until the early '80s, and he was the first chair of the paper's board of directors.
Willamette Week |
10-11-2007 8:22 am |
Industry News
Tags: Management, Willamette Week
Willamette Week Unveils Redesign & New Logonew
"We changed our logo (for the sixth time in our almost 33 years of existence), emphasizing WW rather than Willamette Week," says editor Mark Zusman. The alt-weekly also reduced the paper's height by an inch, changed the typeface, and created a new section "on all matters of living in Portland."
Willamette Week |
10-01-2007 8:12 am |
Industry News
Willamette Week Cover Story Turns into Book Project
What began as a May 2004 story on Starbucks for Taylor Clark has turned into his first book, Starbucked: A Double Tall Tale of Caffeine, Commerce, and Culture, soon to be released by Little, Brown. The former staff writer "chronicles the rise of Starbucks from a modest Northwest operation to a global powerhouse, examines the ways the company impacts society, and what it says about our culture that the company can place stores literally within sight of one another and turn a healthy profit in both," according to a press release." Publisher's Weekly says that Clark's "dubious perspective on one of the modern world's most ubiquitous icons is just frothy enough to prove entertaining."
(FULL STORY)
Hachette Book Group Press Release |
09-26-2007 11:59 am |
Press Releases
Tags: Editorial, Willamette Week
