I was fortunate enough to spend the better part of a July week in Madison, Wis., for the annual AAN Publishers (Association of Alternative Newsmedia) Conference, hosted by Isthmus, Madison’s 49-year-old alternative newspaper.
Here are a few takeaways from the AAN Conference:
• The dedication to truth and resistance among independent, local news publishers remains strong. In various sessions, and during both keynotes—by Katie Drummond, the global editorial director of Wired magazine, and Dan Perkins (aka Tom Tomorrow), the brains behind longtime cartoon This Modern World (which you can read every month here in the RN&R)—the capitulations by Jeff Bezos, ABC News and Paramount to the demands of the Trump administration were discussed and soundly condemned.
By the way, if you’re not reading Wired, you really should be. The publication’s political coverage has been second to none in recent months.
• It’s harder than ever to get information from the government—even records that should unquestionably be made public. There are public-records and freedom-of-information laws at both state and national levels, but they have no teeth—meaning government officials who ignore records requests are rarely punished.
Since Donald Trump returned to the presidency, he’s been making it even harder for journalists and members of the public to get information. From laying off public-records teams, to telling government employees they can’t speak to the media, to fighting public-information efforts in court, to even firing public-records employees for doing their jobs, the Trump administration has made it clear that it wants to control all means of information dissemination, authoritarianism-style. The RN&R has encountered roadblock after roadblock from the federal government as we’ve tried to get the most basic of information regarding various matters over the last six months.
Yeah, journalists and members of the public can go to court to force the government to reveal information—but that’s time-consuming and expensive.
• While some local news outlets are doing well, others face significant challenges. While we were in Madison, we all learned that the 32-year-old Boulder Weekly, in Colorado, had been shut down—perhaps for good—after a dispute between the owner and the editorial staff.
During uncertain economic times, one of the first things businesses cut is advertising budgets—and some local news publications are feeling pinched. That includes the RN&R, where advertising revenue is down this year.
• The Reno News & Review continues to produce some of the best work among all of the nation’s alternative publications. The results of the national 2025 AAN Awards, for work done last year, were announced in Madison—and the RN&R won three awards! (Full disclosure: I concluded a two-year term as the AAN Publishers’ board president at the conference, but I had nothing to do with judging the contest.)
Editor at large Frank X. Mullen won third place in the Right-Wing Extremism Coverage category, for “Voting under siege: Conspiracy theories and the refusal to certify results threaten Washoe County elections,” in our October 2024 print edition, and posted at RenoNR.com on Sept. 26, 2024. The judge cited Frank’s “solid, deep reporting into the effects of election denialism since 2020.”
For the second year in a row, Matt Bieker won third place in the Music Writing category. One of the pieces submitted was his piece “Getting used to the spotlight: When people talk down to the members of Worm Shot for being a ‘girl band,’ they laugh it off,” in our August 2024 print edition, and posted at RenoNR.com on Aug. 11, 2024. The judge said: “I appreciated the ‘girl group’ bullsh*t being addressed head-on and accurately.”
Matt Bieker also earned a second award: an honorable mention, in the Health Care Reporting category, for “Nevada’s first psychedelic church: As activists push for full legality, these spiritual leaders plan to offer psilocybin mushrooms for therapeutic use under the religious freedom act,” in our March 2024 print edition, and posted at RenoNR.com on March 1, 2024. The judge said: “What an intriguing read. The headline immediately drew me in as I wondered whether that was really a ‘workaround.’ The ensuing article was well-written and answered my questions. This is such an interesting approach to legal use of an illegal substance.”
Congrats to Matt, Frank, and the rest of our amazing RN&R team!
Congratulations to the RN&R team and the winners of the ANA awards.
Now, more than ever, we need solid reporters to keep watch on the things that affect our lives at every level.
And we need publishers with backbone unafraid to stand up for the truth.
Well done Frank X. Mullen and Matt Bieker.