Boston Phoenix's Mark Jurkowitz analyzes recent major changes at New York's two alt-weekly newspapers, 50-year-old "granddaddy of alternative journalism" Village Voice and 18-year-old New YorkPress. The Voice's editor and publisher left--and other staff changes followed--after it merged with New Times Media, a company whose ethos was categorized by an opponent as "libertarianism on the rocks with giant stocks of neo-con politics." At the Press, the major players on its masthead resigned last week after management vetoed publication of the riot-inspiring Dutch cartoon. Such turmoil, says Jurkowitz, is "a sure indicator that the alt-weekly business, despite its long-entrenched …

The New York Times was among the big media guns able to look beneath Wal-Mart's corporate façade by analyzing postings from a confidential, internal Web site for the company's managers. Wal-Mart Watch, "a group backed by unions and foundations that is pressing Wal-Mart to improve its wages and benefits" gave the postings to the paper; a disgruntled manager was said to have given the postings to Wal-Mart Watch. "The Web site shows many sides of one of the nation's most powerful executives [Wal-Mart chief H. Lee Scott Jr.]," writes the Times. "He denounces managers who complain about the company or …

The newspaper and magazine industries, hit hard by aggressive, nimble competitors in broadcasting and Internet broadband, are getting up off the mat.  Again.  Groups representing both industries have prepared new ad campaigns designed to persuade advertisers that print is not dead. To the contrary, the campaigns say, print creates relationships with its audience that cannot be duplicated by other media.  Magazine Publishers of America is sponsoring the one campaign; the other comes from the Newspaper Association of America.  Although their timing is coincidental, they were not coordinated with that in mind.  Writes the Times' ad columnist, Stuart Elliott:  "Both …

Craig Newmark, founder and guiding light of Craigslist, the classified-ads supersite, says he's privately working on a project that would aggregate the most trustworthy versions of major news stories of the day. It's still very much a work in progress, Newmark told a reporter for the Minneapolis/St. Paul City Pages. But, if launched, it would likely rely for its results on a combination of software algorithms, editorial judgments, and reader votes. This is meaningful because Newmark has attracted the allegiance of millions of Net users who look to him as a sort of impartial arbiter of information. Because he works …

Former supermodel Tyra Banks--she retired from the business last year at the age of 32--may have created a successful new career for herself as a TV talk-show host.  According to the producers of the syndicated “Tyra Banks Show,” the program, now in its sophomore season, is the most popular of its kind among women ages 18-39.  So reports Andy Serwer, the peripatetic Fortune magazine writer with an interest in popular culture.  Serwer recently asked Banks if she is hoping to brand herself along the lines of an Oprah Winfrey or Martha Stewart.  Banks:  "These are the two women I …

Wall Street Journal writer Steve McKee, writing the "Here and There" column from Turin, where he has been dispatched to watch the Olympics up close and personal, has used his downtime to view the Games on local TV. And what has he discovered? To his surprise, the coverage is both different and, for the most part, edifying. He noticed fewer intrusions by anchors. More attention is paid the athletes and their competitions, less to blathery analysis and, uh, commercials. "Here's a tip for NBC Universal," writes McKee. "Rai Sports [an Italian channel] saves all its commercials for after its …

When Nielsen begins reporting on college-campus TV viewing next year, some shows can expect a welcome ratings boost, says Ad Age reporter Claire Atkinson.  It's believed throughout the industry that “The O.C.,” for example, will see its national numbers leap when the new samples are reported. Same too for ABC's “Grey's Anatomy” and, no surprise, college football. Patricia McDonough, senior vice president-planning, policy and analysis at Nielsen, who helped conduct a study of college-student TV viewing, told Ad Age, "To me, the most surprising fact was that [the students] watch as much TV as any other 18- to 24-year-old." …

Faced with slackening demand for advertising pages, the two major print media--newspapers and consumer magazines--are poised to break their first ad campaigns from new ad agencies. The Newspaper Association of America will launch a series of humorous ads from Richmond, Va.-based Martin Agency, targeting media planners and buyers. The Magazine Publishers of America, meanwhile, is poised to break the second phase of its three-year, $40 million marketing campaign, and the first from new ad shop Wehnam, Mass.- based Mullen. The efforts come on the eve of the 4As' Media Conference and Trade Show, the NAA's annual marketing conference, and the …

Have a desire to hire a celebrity as your product or service's spokesperson? Lots of companies invest in brand-name names to speak on their behalf--sometimes with excellent results, sometimes with disastrous results. Luck may play a role in the process--you can't be held responsible if your luminary goes out and does something stupid and very public on a weekend, say--but to a degree there is in fact a way to measure if a specific celeb would be an effective "face" for your particular needs. At least that's the claim made by Davie-Brown Entertainment, which this week introduced its Davie-Brown Index. …

Edward Helmore, who writes the "Letter from...New York" column for The Guardian in London, seems vaguely aligned with Carl Icahn and others who believe that Time Warner needs to be dismantled. Beyond that, though, he questions the very existence of Time Warner and its Manhattan media brethren, suggesting their time has passed. Referring to the corporate skyscrapers they inhabit in midtown, Helmore writes that "all are awe-inspiring monuments that speak to the power of communication. But there is an increasing belief that they have no reason to exist other than as manifestations of their founders' ego and ambition." He offers …