ASIAN WEEK BOWS OUT

another one bites the digital dust

Just read this on Angry Asian Man: looks like Asian Week, is ceasing publication as a print publication and instead, will go web-only.

This shouldn't be a huge surprise given the current climate for print newspapers - even without the global meltdown, any newspaper would have its challenges and I'm assuming the further disappearance of ad dollars has only exacerbated the issue.

Asian Week - which has been in print for well over 20 years - has long inspired ambivalent reactions from the Asian American community. As AAM points out, the insane Kenneth Eng debacle from last year was a huge black eye on their editorial process, but long before that, Asian Week often came under fire...less for their content and more because their publishers - the Fangs - have political ties (to the GOP) that those on the Left called into question.

Provided, I don't read the paper with any regularity but my own history with them goes back around 15 years and over that time, I always found their news coverage on AA issues to be exceptional, especially in looking at stories that otherwise would go ignored via mainstream press. Whatever the politics of their owners, I don't recall seeing that creep into their editorial content.

I have a special place in my heart for Asian Week since it's where I got my start as a "professional" journalist, back in 1994 when they gave me a column to write (thankfully, very little of it still available online) despite not having much previous experience. That only lasted a year or so but it was a good place to start, especially with the kind of freedom I had to muse. Later in the '90s, I started writing feature stories on them on Asian American arts and culture and I always considered it an important place to start honing my craft as a journalist and writer.

So part of me is sad to see the paper go the way of so many other publications. Hopefully, they can continue to contribute solid reporting via an online presence but for the old schooler that I can be, I'm mourning a little today.

--O.W.