• Birmingham Weekly’s Kyle Whitmire picked up his second consecutive first-place award in the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies’ Alternative Newsweekly Awards, his fourth overall.
• In the Society of Professional Journalists’ 59th Annual Green Eyeshade Awards, Alabama media outlets took home five first-place awards, and WBHM (90.3 FM) took home its second consecutive divisional win in radio. [The directors of the Green Eyeshade Awards canceled this year's banquet because "the news media’s economic problems made it difficult to guarantee attendance."]
Divisional Winner
Radio – WBHM (90.3 FM) of Birmingham, for “Considering Faith,” by its news team. Links to stories
1st Place
“Collection of Editorials” Mac Thrower, Mobile Press-Register
Most part-time positions eliminated; furloughs ended
Media of Birmingham learned through Twitter that the Birmingham News is cutting salaries. Our newsroom sources indicate that salaries will be cut 5 to 8 percent, based on salary level, through 2010.
The budget cuts come at an odd time: While print and online readership are both up for the Birmingham News, advertising remains down.
Also: Kyle Whitmire at the Birmingham Weekly has more specifics on the salary cuts. The Weekly is also reporting that the Birmingham News will close suburban bureaus by the end of summer.
Update: Publisher Victor Hanson III says, “It is imperative that we maintain a robust, independent voice for news and commentary in Birmingham, as well as an effective vehicle for our advertisers.” (Birmingham News: “Birmingham News announces employee pay cuts”)
• • •
Also, Anniston-based Consolidated Publishing cut salaries 10 percent today for all employees at all of its newspapers, including the Anniston Star, (Talladega) Daily Home and the Jacksonville News. The news comes from a series of tweets by Daily Home reporter Katherine Poythress.
Congratulations to MOBster Kyle Whitmire, who won first place in Political Column (under 55,000 circ.) Saturday at the 2008 AltWeekly Awards for his War on Dumb column in Birmingham Weekly.
This is the newspaper’s first win in nine years, though it has picked up several runner-up honors.
On Saturday, the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies and the Medill School of Journalism announced the winners of the 13th annual Altweekly Awards at the association’s convention in Philadelphia. Birmingham Weekly’s ‘War on Dumb’ took first place for best political column in the 55,000-and-under circulation division.
The weekly column by staff writer Kyle Whitmire examines political culture in Birmingham and Alabama.
Birmingham Weekly last received a first place award in 1999 for media criticism by then-staff writer Tom Spencer. In recent years, Birmingham Weekly writers have been runners up for commentary, political commentary and arts criticism.
You can find the rest of the 2008 Altweekly Award winners at www.aan.org.
The winning submission included three columns from 2007 — two about Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford and one about Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s Alabama PAC scheme to sidestep federal campaign finance laws.
You can read the winning columns by following the links below.
Welcome to Media of Birmingham, a networking group in Alabama. We meet on the third Tuesday of every month, and we welcome professionals in journalism, advertising, public relations, new media and marketing. Membership is free.
Congratulations to MOBster Kyle Whitmire, who won first place in Political Column (under 55,000 circ.) Saturday at the 2008 AltWeekly Awards for his 
