Voted Off the Island

Atlanta Fed No Longer Processing Paper Checks

As if the death of print media and the end of Saturday mail delivery wasn't enough, we're seeing the imminent death of paper checks. Not that I'm mourning, but it's all happening so fast. Here in Atlanta, our branch of the Fed will no longer be processing paper checks, and is likely to be laying off around 190 employees who currently process them. 

I do love the ability to pay bills online, but there's still a time and a place and a reason for paper checks and I'll miss them as they become rarer and rarer.   

Here's the full story from the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

Two More Media Deaths

Two former titans of the publishing world have bitten the dust.  In the deal, these other Nielson titles -- Adweek, Brandweek, Mediaweek, The Clio Awards, Backstage, Billboard, Film Journal International and The Hollywood Reporter -- were acquired by e5 Global Media Holdings.  Sigh, the pace is really breathtaking.  Editor & Pubisher, poof! 

  

Update: Southern Voice "Reborn"

A $12 M gift from Lloyd Russell will help help Chris Cash, who founded Southern Voice in 1988, and former SoVo editor Laura Douglas-Brown start a new gay publication.

"Gay activist and businessman Lloyd Russell was active in Atlanta politics as a Libertarian candidate in the 1990s. His nonprofit was started to support the gay community in Atlanta and in the Southeast...read the rest here

via www.ajc.com

Southern Voice Shuts Down

This is just plain sad.  Southern Voice, the weekly newspaper of Atlanta's Gay community, turns out the lights.  Less original news reporting.  Fewer print places to publicize events or target an audience.  A loss of diverse opinions.  A duller community.

Employees arrived at the newspaper's offices off of Briarcliff Road early this morning to find a door locked and a sign posted on the front:

"It is with great regret that we must inform you that effective immediately, the operations of Window Media LLC and Unite Media LLC have closed down."

Full AJC story here.  Creative Loafing too.

Pagine Ebraiche

Ya gotta love the Italians.  While North American newspapers are struggling to survive and 5 major American magazines ceased publication last week alone, Italy has launched a monthly Jewish newspaper, to be sold on newsstands, essentially for non Jews! Banking on Italy's fascination with all things Jewish, Pagine Ebraiche is published by Italy's version of the Jewish Federation, but its aim is to link the Italian Jewish community with the wider Italian world.  Rome, of course, is said to be home to the oldest continuously Jewish population outside of Israel.

The impetus behind them is the UCEI's desire to confront a seeming paradox: Italians are fascinated by things Jewish even though the country's 30,000 Jews comprise a tiny fraction of the population of 60 million.

"There is a huge interest in Jews and Jewish culture here," said Emanuele Ascarelli, who directs “Sorgente di Vita” (“Source of Life”), a biweekly Jewish television program co-produced by UCEI and state-run RAI television that draws 200,000 to 400,000 viewers. Ascarelli estimates that 90 to 95 percent of them are not Jewish.

Ascarelli says the new media initiatives reaching out to the non-Jewish world reflects a new self-confidence among Italian Jews.

Meanwhile, here in Atlanta, the state of Jewish publishing is absolutely dismal. The Atlanta Jewish Times has ceased to have an online presence and circulation under the new editor has plummeted.  The Jewish Georgian, bless its heart, continues to publish.