"We recently discovered that an art review by Nate Lippens published in The Stranger in August 2004 bears striking similarities to an art review by John Miller published in ArtForum in the summer of 2002," editor Christopher Frizzelle wrote last week. On advice from the Poynter Institute, the paper decided to take down and reexamine all of Lippens' stories, and will re-post the ones that are OK "as quickly as we can." When contacted by The Stranger by email, Lippens wrote: "I'm, of course, deeply embarrassed by this. I feel terrible." The next day the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported it was "looking at dozens of pieces written by Lippens" after editors discovered similarities between something he wrote for the daily and Art in America magazine. Lippens has also freelanced for Seattle Weekly, which has "found no evidence thus far of any plagiarism" in the handful of pieces he wrote for them, editor Mike Seely tells AAN News in an email.

As expected, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Marla Miller on Monday raised the amount the Weekly must pay in damages to the San Francisco Bay Guardian, from $6.3 million to $15.9 million. Miller also issued a 10-year injunction, barring the Weekly from selling display ads below cost, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. In the lawsuit, the Guardian accused the Weekly and its parent company Village Voice Media of selling ads below cost with the intent of harming the Guardian. A jury ruled in favor of the Guardian in March. SF Weekly still plans to appeal. Read more on the latest ruling from the Weekly and the Guardian.

"A lot's changed since Hour's inaugural issue on Feb. 4, 1993, notably what constitutes an 'alternative' weekly," editor-in-chief Jamie O'Meara writes. "But a little soul searching is never a bad thing -- it makes you better and, hopefully, stronger." In her column introducing the special anniversary issue, O'Meara says the paper has come to be inextricably tied to the communities it serves. "In an era of mostly borderless, reflexive information sharing, it's more important than ever to have boots on the ground, and to remember that there are still smaller communities within this larger global community of ours that need tending to," she writes. "And that's where we at Hour find our strength."

Canada's Print Measurement Bureau recently released numbers showing a 14.2 percent drop in NOW's readership over the past two years, according to the Globe and Mail. The Canadian daily uses the readership drop as a springboard to examine the state of Toronto's alt-weeklies -- NOW and its competitor Eye Weekly, which is in the same ownership group as the daily Toronto Star. "Alt-weeklies are a particular case. Entirely reliant on advertising revenues, their revenue is not augmented by subscriptions or newsstand sales," the Globe and Mail reports. "At the same time, they're threatened by a panoply of other free offerings." NOW publisher Michael Hollett shrugs off the latest numbers, and says the paper's health is strong. "It's just one of many ways of counting," he says. "Our boxes are empty and business is good." Indeed, the Globe and Mail reports that NOW's ad revenue was up in 2007, and Hollett notes that the paper continues to innovate -- and gain readers -- online.

The paper is holding two "Wedding Wednesdays" where it will conduct free group weddings for twelve same-sex couples, "in celebration of the long overdue right for homosexual partners to legally marry in the state of California," according to a press release. The ceremonies will be conducted by Express marketing director Terry Furry on June 25 and July 2, with help from a local wedding planning company. In addition to the ceremonies, the Express will provide the twelve couples with a catered reception, honeymoon prize packages, professional photos, a published wedding announcement, and local media publicity.

AAN this week is launching a comments feature on stories posted to this site. AAN members must be logged in to read and/or make comments.

In case the seminars, parties and after-parties aren't enough to fill your days at the Convention, our sponsor GPTMC has created special guided morning experiences (from 7:30-9 am) just for convention attendees. On Friday, June 6, you have a choice of a trip that includes a visit to Philadelphia's Magic Garden (and a soft pretzel fresh out of the oven), or Punk Rock Boot Camp, a fun and effective fitness alternative. Saturday morning offers a running or walking loop on the Schuylkill River Trail, as well as a private tour of the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall -- including a trip to the rarely visited second floor of Congress Hall. All tours are limited to 25 participants. To register, please email Debra Silvestrin at debra (at) aan.org. Please visit the Special Events page on the Convention website for full descriptions. And if you're looking to explore on Sunday morning after the Convention is over, GPTMC has created a handy guide of potential self-guided tours, including "Brewadelphia," "Philly: A Green Kind of Town," and seven others that you can check out in this PDF.

Washington City Paper and Santa Fe Reporter each add another finalist to their awards counts, bringing the papers' totals this year to seven. Click here for the Editorial Layout finalists or here for the full list of finalists. AAN and Medill will reveal the order of finish at the AltWeekly Awards luncheon on June 7 in Philadelphia.

"While search advertising remains strong, there are signs that the growth in online advertising -- particularly in more elaborate display ads -- is slowing down," the New York Times reports. The prices for online display ads are falling as well: The prices paid for ads bought through networks dropped 23 percent from March to April, according to one index. Search ads remain popular since "they are considered cheap and effective among marketers -- even in a potential recession," according to the Times. One analyst thinks recession fears might actually help some media companies, as marketers move their budgets online. "People switch their advertising budgets out of traditional advertising formats -- TV, radio and print -- and move more online because it's got higher performance, it's cheaper and it's more measurable," Sanford C. Bernstein senior analyst Jeffrey Lindsay says.

Matt Coker, who came to Sacramento from the OC Weekly last Spring, was dismissed earlier this month, the Sacramento Bee reports. In addition, the paper's arts editor, Jonathan Kiefer, has resigned. News & Review CEO Jeff von Kaenel tells the Bee that Melinda Welsh will serve as interim editor until a permanent replacement is found. "(Melinda and I) have worked together for 20 years and we'll continue to make sure we're putting out a great paper," he says.

"Thanks primarily to a rather sensationalistic story on WREG Channel 3 Wednesday night, John Branston's City Beat column from this week's Flyer seems to be generating some controversy," writes editor Bruce VanWyngarden. In the column, Branston asks who should be "the HNIC" of Memphis City Schools, a term meaning "head [N-word] in charge" that refers to the film Lean on Me. VanWyngarden writes that, as editor, he takes responsibility for the column and the phrase. "I apologize to those who were offended by the use of the term in John's column. It was not intended as a racial slur but as a cultural reference to a very real and important decision facing our school board," he writes. "Lost in the controversy is the fact that in his column Branston asks some very pointed and relevant questions of potential superintendent candidates -- questions we ought to be asking." Nevertheless, the one source the TV station has that is upset about the whole thing is still calling for Branston to be fired.

"Following the lead in other cities, the [city's] administration has been working in voluntary cooperation with the News Sentinel [Metro Pulse's parent company] and other publications" to create Knoxville's first unified distribution center, replacing a string of existing news boxes, according to Metro Pulse. If the program goes well, the city is looking to expand it downtown. "Right now Knoxville has no ordinances or restrictions on placement of publication distribution boxes," Metro Pulse reports, but if the voluntary program doesn't work, the city has already examined legislation in other cities to emulate, if necessary.

The Weekly's winnings in the annual awards "designed to reward journalistic excellence" in the 13 states West of the Rocky Mountains included two first-place awards: Nikki Finke's "Deadline Hollywood" column in Special Topic Column Writing, and Tim Foley's "The Case of the Dogged Detective" in Illustration. "Nikki Finke is a badass. Period," say the judges comments. "Good stuff, written with passion and an utter disregard whether any of the studio heads, or anyone in 'the industry,' will ever buy her lunch." The judges say Foley's "stylistic comic book illustration, creative use of color and the comic book-like typography all worked so perfectly well together in this illustration ... Foley did a fantastic job of bringing it all together."

Independent.com has won the EPpy for the best weekly newspaper-affiliated website in the country, Editor & Publisher, which sponsors the contest with Mediaweek, reports. The winners of the annual awards honoring online work were announced yesterday in Las Vegas, and publisher Randy Campbell was there to accept, thanking his staff "for their hard work in taking the website from a skeleton to a fully operational daily source of news for the Santa Barbara community," the Independent reports. "There are no secrets to publishing, either online or in print, so I'm thrilled the hard work and commitment of our web team has been recognized on a national level," said Campbell back in April when the site was first nominated.

Ten fellows have been chosen from a field of about 330 hopefuls to attend the Academy for Alternative Journalism summer residency program at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, to be held June 22 to August 15. The academy trains young journalists in long-form feature writing with the aim of recruiting them into the alternative press. "This class has a lot of career-changers, including a flight attendant, a former truck driver and an elementary school teacher," says program director and Northwestern journalism professor Charles Whitaker. "It's one of the most diverse classes we've had in several years."

Dan Williamson will take over as Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman's spokesman on June 2, according to Columbus Business First. Williamson, who the mayor called "one of the sharpest political observers and writers in Ohio," will oversee a two-member staff and coordinate communications for 13 departments in his new role.

Both Gambit Weekly and The Independent Weekly went home last month with awards from The Louisiana Press Association. The Independent won a total of 38 awards in the editorial and ad/design competitions. These included first-place finishes on the editorial side in Community Service/Service to Readers Website; Continuing Coverage of a Governmental Issue; Continuing Coverage of a Single News Event; Editorial Cartoon; Feature Story; Lifestyle Coverage; and News Coverage. On the ad/design side, the Independent won first in Ad Campaign; Black and White 1/2 Page or Under (Staff-generated); Black and White Over 1/2 Page (Staff-generated); In-Paper Promotion (Color); and Multiple Advertiser Page. Gambit Weekly took home a total of seven awards in the editorial competition, including a first-place finish in Regular Column.

The finalists this year, selected from more than 1,400 entries and over 90 participating papers, run the gamut from investigations of errant public officials to stories about green living. L.A. Weekly leads the pack with eight winners. Washington City Paper and Santa Fe Reporter follow closely with six nominees each. The order of finish for the 13th annual AltWeekly Awards contest will be announced on June 7 in Philadelphia.