​Two of VVM's award-winning food critics have been selected for inclusion in the 2011 edition of Best Food Writing, the popular anthology published annually by Avalon. Jonathan Kauffman of SF Weekly was recognized for "Shark Fin's Soup," a fascinating story that helps readers understand exactly why so many people around the world covet the controversial dish. Laura Hahnefeld of Phoenix New Times was the other VVM winner, honored for "Fry Girl's Year of Eating Dangerously," a darkly comic description of how her job description--to eat huge amounts of fried food and then write about it--came back to haunt her. Best Food Writing is on shelves now.

​The Village Voice has received eight nominations in this year's AltWeekly Awards, more than any other publication. Miami New Times, LA Weekly and the Riverfront Times each received five nominations, while the Dallas Observer, the Houston Press, Phoenix New Times and SF Weekly will each take home four awards. Winners will be announced later this month at the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies' annual convention in New Orleans. All VVM publications compete in the "large circulation" category, and this year swept the Public Service, Long-Form News Story and Cover Design categories.

​An even dozen VVM writers received awards in the recently announced Best of the West awards, which honor journalistic excellence in the thirteen states west of the Rockies. Westword staff writer Alan Prendergast was a multiple winner, taking first place in Arts and Entertainment Writing and second for Growth and Environment Reporting. Other first-place nods went to Peter Jamison of SF Weekly (Sports Reporting), Monica Alonzo of Phoenix New Times (Immigration and Border Reporting), and Chris Vogel and Craig Malisow, both of the Houston Press, for Growth and Environment Reporting and Long-Form Feature Writing. Other second-place winners were Jim Schutze and Alex Flores of the Dallas Observer (Long-Form Feature Writing and Page Design) and Gustavo Arellano of OC Weekly (Column Writing). Third-place winners were Daniel Rodrigue of the Observer, Beth Barrett of LA Weekly, Joel Warner of Westword, and Charlotte Hsue of LA Weekly, who completed a VVM sweep in Long-Form Feature Writing.

​The Livingston Awards for Young Journalists, the nation's preeminent all-media reporting contest, has named three VVM writers finalists in this year's competition. Phoenix New Times staff writer Sarah Fenske (now managing editor at the Riverfront Times in St. Louis) joined former RFT staff writer (now VVM contributing writer) Kristen Hinman and SF Weekly staff writer Peter Jamison on the list of honorees. Winners will be announced on June 7, and will receive $10,000 prizes. In the past decade, VVM has had more Livingston winners and finalists than any other American media organization.

​SF Weekly today settled the below-cost pricing lawsuit filed against it in 2004 by the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

​For over a century, the California Supreme Court has interpreted antitrust law as protecting consumers from high prices, not the profits of entrenched market leaders who fear competition. The Supreme Court's refusal yesterday to follow Justice Joyce Kennard's wishes and hear our appeal in the Bay Guardian's below-cost pricing lawsuit against SF Weekly turns a century of pro-consumer California antitrust law on its ear. More >>

Janelle Monae at the All Shook Down festival.

​Perfect beer-drinking weather, a roster of cutting-edge artists, and a parrot wearing a jacket combined to make SF Weekly's first All Shook Down Music Festival a roaring success last weekend. Large crowds mingled in the streets of North Beach to hear acts like Forrest Day, Janelle Monae and Neon Indian, whose frontman Alan Palomo provided the festival's stylistic high point when a helpful fan put a parrot adorned in a turquoise smoking jacket on his shoulder. Only in San Francisco, indeed.

Kristen Hinman

​Kristen Hinman, the award-winning staff writer for VVM's Riverfront Times in St. Louis, wowed the crowd at last weekend's Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference in Dallas. The annual gathering, organized by the University of North Texas and held at the rustic airport Hilton, celebrates narrative writing across the publishing spectrum, including newspapers, online, magazines and books. This year's other speakers included the inimitable Gary Smith of Sports Illustrated fame, who proved as humble in person as his high-concept stories are intimidating (and inspiring) to other writers, and Black Hawk Down author Mark Bowden, the former Philadelphia newspaper reporter whose well-received keynote speech carried a subversive central theme: don't be afraid to fight with your editor. Hinman, who recently moved to Washington, D.C. after six years at the RFT, was invited to Dallas to talk about the art of profile writing. The crowd closely followed her play-by-play of the challenges--and personal attacks--she faced when telling the story of irascible St. Louis sports-talk-radio host Kevin Slaten.

​Facial-recognition technology has been a flat-out bust so far in the "War on Terror." The notion that bad guys could be plucked from the crowd by cameras carefully calculating their "biometrics" has yet to bear fruit. Yet in a recent San Francisco murder trial, a judge allowed the controversial technique to be introduced into evidence--not by the prosecution, but by the defense. In a potentially precedent-setting move, the trial of alleged gang member Charles "Cheese" Heard was allowed to hinge on controversial expert testimony over the size of his mug. As our Featured Story of the Week, we recommend "Facial Profiling," by SF Weekly staff writer Peter Jamison.

Debrahlee Lorenzano

​Village Voice Media Holdings, LLC's family of websites scored more than 68 million page views in the month of June, making it the biggest traffic month in the history of VVMH. Page views across the chain were 40 million in June 2009. In June 2008 they were 24 million.