As part of its extensive coverage of flooding occurring in the upper Missouri River, the Capital Journal in Pierre, SD has posted a video showing an aerial view of flooded homes in Fort Pierre, SD.

Contributor Tim Vanderpool, won two first-place awards in the Arizona Press Club contest

The Weekly cleaned up in two separate awards competitions for work done in 2010.

The advertising and design staffs dominated the Non-Daily Circulation Greater Than 10,000 category in the Arizona Newspaper Association’s Excellence in Advertising competition, winning the general excellence award and eight other honors. Two of those awards were first-place finishes, and designer Greg Willhite himself won six awards.

The editorial side had a big awards haul in the Arizona Press Club’s annual contest, winning seven awards—including a whopping six first-place finishes.

All six of the writing awards—five of those first-place wins—came in Metro or Best in Arizona categories, meaning the Weekly was competing with all of the state’s largest newspapers, including The Arizona Republic, the Arizona Daily Star and Phoenix New Times.

While the Weekly took five big-newspaper writing wins, the Arizona Daily Star, Tucson’s main daily newspaper, earned only one first-place writing award, and three overall.

Tucson Weekly's The Need for Weed cover

When the Tucson Weekly announced that it was looking for a freelancer to review Southern Arizona’s medical-marijuana-related businesses—following voter approval of a ballot initiative legalizing medical weed—the newspaper expected perhaps a bit of local attention.

Sure enough, a local TV station came calling, and did a silly but accurate piece.

Weekly staffers did not expect what came next.

The local TV-news story was picked up all across the country. Then CNN Headline News came along and incorporated the local TV footage into a short piece of its own. CNN.com took the CNN Headline News piece and reworked it into a story that was on the CNN.com front page for the better part of a day.

In the middle of all of this, international media started calling. A reporter with London’s Daily Mail interviewed Weekly editor Jimmy Boegle and produced a story that, in a word, was ridiculous.

“As jobs adverts go, it is one of the more controversial. Which might explain why the response has been stone cold,” the piece begins. “Southern Arizona local newspaper the Tuscon Weekly has come under fire after advertising for a medical marijuana critic.”

Several problems there: First, the advertisement was not controversial; the Weekly received one true complaint. Therefore, second, there was no fire to come under.

Third, well, it’s Tucson, not Tuscon.

Aside from the Daily Mail interview, the most interesting bit of media attention came when Boegle was interviewed on The Playboy Radio Morning Show on SiriusXM’s Playboy Radio Channel.

How did Boegle describe the Playboy Radio interview? “I’ll just say that it was one heck of an experience, and leave it at that,” he said.

The Weekly expects to start running medical-marijuana reviews later this year.

Eric Petermann

 Eric Petermann has been named the editor at the Sierra Vista Herald/Bisbee Daily Review.

 He started Monday at the local Wick Communications publication after four years at The Journal-Standard, a daily newspaper in Freeport, Ill., where he was also the editor.

 Herald/Review Publisher Philip Vega said Petermann was the best among a large field of candidates who applied.

 “We were impressed by Eric’s passion for the newspaper business. His work in Illinois elevated the quality of the content and also improved that newspaper’s standing in the community.

 “While we believe we publish a good newspaper, we look forward to Eric’s leadership and news instincts. His experience and enthusiasm leading the news staff will translate into a better newspaper delivered to our readers,” Vega said.

 Petermann said he was attracted to work with an experienced publisher at a family-owned company.

 “I was impressed with the management structure, both at the newspaper and at Wick Communications. In today’s newspaper industry, the reality is that community journalism has lost some of its priority to corporate financial management. It’s refreshing to find a newspaper that values its content and puts its readers first,” Petermann said.

 In 2009, Petermann received numerous writing awards including best opinion page in his newspaper group, columnist of the year from Suburban Newspaper Association, and an editorial writing award from The Associated Press.

 Prior to his time in Freeport, Petermann was the editor at The Post-Journal in Machesney Park, Ill., and previous to that worked in the commercial printing industry in Milwaukee, Wis.

 He has been affiliated with newspapers for most of his life, working with his father, the publisher and owner of a twice-weekly newspaper in Delavan, Wis.

 After growing up in the business, Petermann worked for the eventual buyer of his father’s newspaper, Bliss Communications, for three years, before leaving to work in commercial printing.

 He has three grown daughters. The youngest is attending nursing school at the University of Wisconsin, the second daughter is a nurse at University Hospitals in Madison, where she is finishing her studies as a Nurse Practitioner; and the oldest daughter is completing her residency as pediatrician at Michigan State University, at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, Mich.

 To contact the editor send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or call the newspaper at (520) 458-9440.