Fresh Loaf

First week of school done and already sick of it? Can’t wait to graduate? No worries, CL’s got your back all semester long, we’ll do a series of posts looking at crucial pieces of information from last week’s College Guide (you did read it, didn’t you?) to get you through ’till finals week.

First, academics. Nothing’s more important than starting your semester on the right track and with a good game-plan, so how about the top 5 study spots that aren’t the library? Because you know, sometimes library quiet is too quiet. Who knows, maybe you’ll round-up a nice study group and do more than hit the books.

Of course, first weeks of school are notorious for those of you trying to pay for school, so here’s a guide on how to limit the painful payback of student loans.  In 2006, 56 percent of recent Georgia graduates were in debt, owing an average of $17,753 for student loans, according to the Project on Student Debt, so click through to find out what loan decisions are the right decisions.

And last but not least, check out 12 local book shops worth browsing for more than just textbooks.

» CL’s College Guide 2008

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1. AJC editors mum on sudden departures By Ken Edelstein

2. Why was Atlanta arborist Tom Coffin fired? By Thomas Wheatley

3. UFC in Atlanta: A primer on mixed-martial arts By Jason Hatcher

4. Lisa Border’s bows out of mayor’s race By Scott Henry

5. 315 W. Ponce project tabled by zoning board By Thomas Wheatley

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I laid off two fine journalists Monday, and I must be honest with you that it seemed to me not the wisest business decision.

Like other media companies that have their roots in print, Creative Loafing finds itself in a harsh economic environment. Alt-weeklies like CL ought to be doing better than the big dailies, and I think we are. We’ve always operated more efficiently, and our readers are younger.

But we’re still in a tight spot. The economy’s down, so businesses are advertising less. Printing and transportation expenses have skyrocketed. And the bad thing about this particular downturn is that so much advertising is moving permanently from print to online, where it’s still difficult to make enough money. So management here, like at other papers, faces pressure to cut costs.

Any way you cut it, this is a difficult bind. The problem is that reducing the number of people writing stories makes it more difficult for us to build our audience online.

I guess that point of view is predictable coming from me, because I’m talking about our department. But, then again, everyone has their biases. The money guys at newspapers usually don’t come from an editorial background. It seems to me they find it easier than they should to cut the resources going into the creation of the very content we need to grow.

The journalists we lost Monday were two of our most experienced writers and editors. Senior editor Scott Freeman wrote recent cover stories on Brian Nichols and indigent defense, on a controversial alternative school in Atlanta, and on New Yorkers who hate living in Atlanta and visa-versa. He also ably edited our news section and mentored other writers.

Senior writer David Lee Simmons was for two years our arts and entertainment editor. More recently he’s written film reviews and cultural features, and he’s edited special sections. I hope you’ll still be able to see their bylines in the print edition and in Fresh Loaf but as occasional freelancers rather than full-time staff members.

Although it’s difficult to stomach these losses, I don’t want to give you the wrong impression: I’m still very confident that we’ll serve this community as well — or even better – than we ever have. We’re blessed with a corps of writers and editors who have the intelligence, passion and integrity to cover this city like no one else. But you’ll, of course, be the ultimate judge of that.

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We’ve been having server problems at the massive Creative Loafing MSM complex. Angry bloggers cut our thingamajig cable and … goodbye to the Internets. Or else it was construction workers. Or terrorists.

But the hamsters are carrying our posts through the electronic tubes from remote locations. The usual errant missives should be arriving fast and furious throughout the day — now that I have my baton out and am flogging the writers.

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Subject line: “Angelina Jolie set to destroy own vagina.”

On a similar note, make sure to check out the Gallery at East Atlanta Tattoo’s 4 on the Floor exhibit, through Aug. 2, featuring Jessica Elaine Blinkhorn, Dave MacDowell, Emma Mount and Brandi Read.

(Image by Dave MacDowell)

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1. AJC’s Julia Wallace: ‘We’re doing the things we need to be doing’ By Ken Edelstein

2. WARNINGS: Davy Jones of The Monkees plays hard By Andisheh Nouraee

3. Jim Powell back on the ballot By Thomas Wheatley

4. Elitist freedom-hating New Yorkers move to, hate on Atlanta By Thomas Wheatley

5. Georgia primary election results By Ken Edelstein

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1. AJC @issue section to go bye-bye? By Ken Edelstein

2. Doomsday at the AJC? By Scott Henry

3. Voter Guide: Public Service Commission By Thomas Wheatley

4. AMC Fork & Screen replaces Buckhead Backlot By Curt Holman

5. Georgia Tech student places CraigsList ad to learn how to smooch By Thomas Wheatley

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I don’t think Abbott and Costello were Creative Loafing employees back in the day. But at least they understood the confusion that our name can create:

In my time here, CL’s been mistaken for a bakers’ magazine and furniture periodical. When I was a reporter, I had a hard time explaining the name to, say, serious business or political sources in New York or Washington; they’d start cracking up and wouldn’t take me seriously. But Roger Brown, a former writer here who started the Blotter, used to tell the best story of anyone: He swears that a farmer he was interviewing heard the name and translated it in his mind to “the Casual Relaxer.”

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CL has launched a new blog called Sideshow that exists merely so happy party-goers can see their happy faces the day after.  We want to help people remember exactly how much fun they had before they were hungover. And we need a couple awesome photographers to do that.

We’ll be giving you the access to the coolest shows, parties and festivals. You’ll be posting wicked photos to our website. And we’ll pay you. It’s an exceedingly symbiotic relationship.

If you think you’re down for the task or know someone who is, contact me at taralynne.pixley@cln.com. Send me some shots you’ve taken that pass for “nightlife photos” (i.e. you and your friends at a party, drinking in your backyard or wreaking havoc elsewhere) and you just might get picked to be CL’s photo ambassador to the nightcrawlers of Atlanta.
Email me with any questions but check out the Sideshow photo galleries first to get an idea of what we’re looking for.  Don’t send me photos of your dog, your grandma or that artsy shot of a fire hydrant. Party pics, people.

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We’d like to thank the record number of readers who have entered into our Summer Guide Contest for tickets/passes to 11 of the 111 best things to do this summer. (I say record number in that, it seems like a ton more than last year, which was my first year doing this, which will then count as the entire history of CL Summer Guide contests. So there.)So consider this a final reminder of the deadline for the contest, which is today (Friday), 5 p.m. We’ll then gather up all the applicants and place them in a lottery system so complicated I probably couldn’t even explain it to people. (Although it might involve printing out the answers, wadding them up into balls of paper, and drawing from a garbage bag. We’ll see.)

We’ll announce the winner on Monday, June 2, in the PopSmart blog. Until then, if you haven’t played the game, you have about two hours left. It’s really easy: Simply visit the Summer Guide online (either by clicking here or on the Summer Guide tile on our homepage), and scan through the 111 options, looking for hyperlinks on 11 of those coolest of cool events, and then filling out the form as described. We’ll take it from there.

Get crackin’.

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Creative Loafing has named Luann Labedz as the new publisher in Atlanta.

The company and Dave Schmall, the paper’s publisher since 2006, have parted ways, Chief Operating Officer Kirk MacDonald told the Atlanta staff Thursday morning.

“It’s not broken here, so I want to build on that,” Labedz says. “There’s a great deal of energy here.”

As publisher, Labedz will be the top manager for Creative Loafing — Atlanta, reporting directly to MacDonald. While her primary duties relate to sales and marketing, Editor Ken Edelstein and managers of other departments report to her.

Labedz joins CL after 18 years at Gannett Co., where she began her career at The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. Since 2001, she’s worked for the company in Asheville, N.C., as director of market development at the Citizen-Times, that city’s daily. In both cities, she was responsible for niche publications, product development, strategy and advertiser partnerships. During her time at Gannett, the marketing team won numerous awards from the Colorado Press Association, the International Marketing Association, the Newspaper Association of America and Gannett’s Multi-Media MAC competition.

Prior to Gannett, the Buffalo, N.Y.-native worked eight years in sales at Burroughs (now Unisys Computers) in New York City. Labedz holds an MBA from SUNY-Buffalo and earned her undergraduate degree from Oswego College.

“I like the diversity here,” she says, when asked what she enjoys about Atlanta. “The amenities that are available across the board — the nightlife, entertainment, dining. The energy and excitement of the big city. I also like the youth — with that comes a vibrancy that’s very attractive.”

When asked if she’s been given a heads-up about the city’s biggest stain, she rolls her eyes and laughs. “Yes, everyone’s warned me about the traffic.”

Labedz starts on June 2 and says she welcomes readers’ input and ideas about the paper. “I’m very excited to be here,” she says. “This is a new beginning and start for me professionally.”

Creative Loafing Inc. is based in Tampa, Fla. It operates alternative weeklies in Charlotte, Chicago, Sarasota (Fla.), Tampa and Washington, D.C., as well as Atlanta.

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Sure, Creative Loafing’s got desks of award-winning designers, but we also know that Atlanta’s got talent.

So, we’re asking Georgia students to submit their cover designs for CL’s 2008 College Guide: The Student Body Handbook.

We’re taking the phrase “student body” literally and figuratively this year, and providing a guide for students’ heads (academics), hearts (activism), stomachs (food and drink), arms and legs (partying), and feet (moving about Atlanta and on from college).

The first-place winner receives $200 cash and prizes.

Start sketching; the deadline is midnight, Tues., July 1.

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Nearly one hour after a heavy thundershower briefly caused CL’s roof to leak, almost frying a computer, I received this e-mail alert from The Weather Channel:

SIGNIFICANT WEATHER ALERT FOR EXCESSIVE LIGHTNING AND HEAVY RAIN IN DEKALB…COBB…GWINNETT AND FULTON COUNTIES UNTIL 5:00 PM EDT…

Gee, thanks.

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Oakland cemetary hdr 2

This photo was taken by Flickr user PhotoColletta nearly a month before a tornado tore through Oakland Cemetery, severely damaging tombs and gravestones, and closing the park to unescorted visitors. It’s ostensibly a graveyard photo, but in my mind it’s really a sky photo. The clouds look weaved together.

Please keep the photos coming. We’ll pick another weekly winner next week. Also, the Creative Loafing Atlanta Flickr Group member who submits the most photos to the group before the end of the month also wins a nice prize.

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In this week’s Summer Guide, we did something a little sneaky to make your summer a fairly cool one. Embedded in 11 of the “111 things to do” is a little sentence that reads: “Wanna attend this event for free?”
If you click on that sentence, you will be whisked away to a magical place, where you can enter our contest for tickets to those 11 fun things. Within that link is a link to a form to fill out all 11 events once you’ve found them. Then email that form to: summerguide@cln.com.
You’ll be glad you did.
Oh, and that photo? Take it as a very nice, very broad hint about one of the 11.
Start clicking …

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Bragging is tacky, I know, but the CL You Shoot Flickr photo contest has been a smashing success. 40 new members have uploaded hundreds of great photos in just two weeks.

This week’s contest winner is mateofiero’s lovely snap of two smokers in Little Five Points.

passing

The photo was apparently a happy accident. He was trying to take a photo of the woman when the man walked into the the frame.

You know, my only sibling is seven years older than me. I’m a happy accident, too.

So, mateofiero, contact me at andisheh at creativeloafing.com and come claim your prize — tickets and VIP to the 11th Annual Country Fair this weekend at Lakewood, and four tickets to Center For Puppetry Arts.

Keep the photos coming. There’s another prize for our favorite photo next week, and a prize in two weeks for the person who adds the most photos during the month that can be used with Urban Explorer listings.

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