Negative coverage prompts Alberta city to take its ads out of town

No one covers Wetaskiwin, Alta., politics like the Times Advertiser. Its solid coverage of city council's 2009 debate over liquor store hours earned writer Jerold Le-Blanc second place last month in the Best Business Writing category for newspapers with circulations over 10,000 in the Canadian Community Newspaper Association's Better Newspapers Competition. The paper's attention to touchy local issues, including crime problems and questionable municipal spending, hasn't escaped the notice of Wetaskiwin's Mayor and city council either. They're not fans. Last month, council voted unanimously to pull city advertising from the free local paper and award it instead to a free paper based in the town of Millet, Alta., a community just under a half-hour to the north.