Jackson Free Press

The magazine, Next American City, just published an article about the Jackson Free Press in their new issue. It also quotes Ben Allen, Harvey Johnson and Kamikaze about the JFP and what's going on in Jackson. (In the piece, Ben Allen—who first came up with "JFP Nation" to describe our readership—adds ads yet another descriptor of the JFP when he called us "urban warriors" in the piece. We like it.)

Read the full article here.

Quill Magazine, the magazine of the Society of Professional Journalists, also just published a piece about the Jackson Free Press. It's not online, but we'll add a PDF of the piece here shortly.

Previous Comments

ID

117787

Comment

Re. Next American City's article: Nice. Congratulations!!!!!!!

Author

J.T.

Date

2008-03-25T19:50:23-06:00

ID

117788

Comment

Re. Next American City's article: Nice. Congratulations!!!!!!!

Author

J.T.

Date

2008-03-25T19:50:23-06:00

ID

117789

Comment

My favorite part: At times, these densely threaded social relationships threaten to combust. In the paper's first six months, Stauffer had sleepless nights over their cover story exposés on Trent Lott and the Dixiecrats' and the Southern Strategy. This was after Lott's infamous comments at Strom Thurmond's retirement party. "I thought that was it," says Stauffer, convinced they'd hemorrhage so many advertisers that they'd be forced to close. Today, the couple has learned that people read them either because of or despite the controversy. As Kamikaze puts it, "You have people who hate Donna but who spend all day posting on the [JFP] Web site," Ain't that the truth! :-P

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2008-03-25T20:21:42-06:00

ID

117790

Comment

Absolutely BEAUTIFUL story. Love it!

Author

kp

Date

2008-03-25T21:19:53-06:00

ID

117791

Comment

Outstanding article! Who'd ever thought a small but growing alt-weekly could end up being an agent of change in Jackson?

Author

golden eagle

Date

2008-03-25T22:36:19-06:00

ID

117792

Comment

Very nice. Congrats.

Author

QB

Date

2008-03-26T07:44:36-06:00

ID

117793

Comment

Beautiful. I'm proud to be a small part of the JFP Nation.

Author

Lady Havoc

Date

2008-03-26T07:45:26-06:00

ID

117794

Comment

Thanks, folks. It's funny how one of our, er, anonymous obsessors always manages to get onto anything positive published about our work here and publish a link back to a certain site that puts false information out about us. Let's all join hands and send vibes of compassion out to the Lost Boys of Jackson. ;-D

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-03-26T08:11:30-06:00

ID

117795

Comment

Oh and Lady, we love that you're here, too. The most humbling part of this whole journey is the people who don't agree with everything said here, but who show up in unity to push our city toward a great future. Just humbling. We can disagree, but we can all be "urban warriors" together. Love it. I also love how other sites use the language we, and our supporters, come up with—like JFP Nation. ;-)

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-03-26T08:13:24-06:00

ID

117796

Comment

That's Mississippi for you, we love a good debate on the absurdity of politics.

Author

Ironghost

Date

2008-03-26T09:48:36-06:00

ID

117797

Comment

BTW, I don't agree with the writer's hyperbolic conclusion as it's written, even though he has the right to his own opinion, of course: As alt-weeklies continue to consolidate, gutting their investigative teams and replacing them with a consumer’s-guide crowd of hipster-urban transplants, the JFP has run 50 yards in the opposite direction, digging up dirt on City Hall, taxpayer fraud and public schools while writing for an audience of longtime city dwellers. It’s not a strategy that most alt-weeklies would bank upon. Actually, it is a strategy that many, many alts bank on. We are following a proud tradition in the alt-weekly world of muckraking and "digging up dirt on City Hall." Yes, there is some consolidation happening in the alt-weekly industry, especially in large cities, but some of the best journalism around has long happened at alternative weeklies. So we're not running "in the opposite direction" of alts; papers (whether daily or weekly) that turn away from enterprise journalism are running the opposite direction away from good journalism. I have many mentors and role models in the alt world, and I don't want for it to sound as if the JFP somehow came up with an idea for this kind of reporting. And I sure didn't imply that to the writer. Now, I will say that the main way that the JFP varies from many alts, and many dailies for that matter, is in the diversity of both our coverage and our readership, which I did talk a lot about in our interview—not to criticize less-diverse papers, but to emphasize why we believe it's so important not to present an alternative paper from an overly white perspective. And the truth is that most alt editors and publishers are working toward being more diverse both because it's the right thing to do and because it's good business.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-03-26T10:59:38-06:00

ID

117798

Comment

The article was great. Although, I agree, it did sound as if it just "ended". I WANTED MORE. Very much like the ending to "No Country For Old Men" (but that is totally another topic).

Author

Lori G

Date

2008-03-26T11:07:18-06:00

ID

117799

Comment

Don't tell me how it ended! I haven't seen it, yet. ;-) I just feel that it's important to emphasize that we are carrying on a proud tradition in the alt world of good reporting/writing and extensive entertainment listings/coverage. That has long been the success formula for alts—and, in fact, even papers that are consolidating with others are still following that formula. From a business perspective, a very appealing, educated, active demographic wants what alts provide. So I guess my upshot is that I would prefer that the story have been written just about the JFP and our place in Jackson, which we really appreciate national media noticing, without trying to compare us in a drive-by way to other alts. I may not be a fan of big media companies, whether alt or otherwise, but it doesn't mean that I think the word "consolidation" suddenly means that papers stop covering city hall. It doesn't. The alts that most recently won Pulitzers, in fact, are owned by companies that own alts in different states. We're hyper-locally owned, of course, and proud of it, but I'm still not a fan of broad strokes. I wouldn't hate Gannett so much, in fact, if they would allow their papers to continue good journalism, and hire people who would ensure that it happened.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-03-26T11:17:32-06:00