That's what some businesses in California's Sonoma County tell the Press-Democrat. The owner of a local pastry shop says a Yelp salesperson offered to rearrange reviews of her pastry shop for $300 a month. But according to Yelp's website, reviews cannot be rearranged. Representatives from the popular user-generated review site did not return the Press-Democrat's calls seeking a comment.

While Borrell Associates recently predicted that online ad spending will top out next year, Online Media Daily reports that some industry leaders are challenging the firm's prognosis. One eMarketer senior analyst says that while they see the slowest year of growth since '03, "we do see growth." Meanwhile, another study, by Advertiser Perceptions Inc., finds that the number of media brands ad executives plan to place ads in over the next six months is expanding for online media, but declining for print outlets. And in another bit of online ad news, mobile web ad provider Admob reports that requests for iPhone ads have increased 1000 percent in four months, making it the top device on the Admob network.

"I get it, I get it: you're not all bigots and haters, and people marched against Prop 8 in Salt Lake City this weekend," Savage writes in response to Salt Lake Tribune columnist Sean P. Means' invitation for Savage to visit the state to see the "real" Utah. "But I'm not ready to make nice -- on purpose or by accident -- with the bigots and haters from Magic Underpants Inc. who donated money and time to Prop 8." MORE: Savage has been "a teeny bit over the top with his rhetoric, Salt Lake City Weekly's John Saltas says, before reprising Means' invite and offering to pay Savage's way. "We'll introduce him to local GLBT leaders, many of whom are equally pissed that he walked away from them."

SelectAlternatives has released a study of 15 papers using its personals/social networking software comparing Jan.-Oct. 2008 against Jan.-Oct. 2007. The study found that total revenues are up 8 percent; personals revenues are up 16 percent; and adult Revenues are down five percent. Web traffic also saw significant increases, with total page views increasing 12 percent, to 60.7 million in '08.

As chatter increases about a potential federal bailout of the foundering American automotive industry, Michigan's alt-weeklies are addressing the crisis. Lansing's City Pulse is "having some serious doubts about this bailout," adding: "Like giving spare change to an alcoholic outside a liquor store, it would be a waste to hand these companies $25 billion and expect everything to be OK." In Detroit's Metro Times, longtime columnist Jack Lessenberry takes a different tack, arguing that it would be "extremely foolish" to let the auto makers fail, and that it would lead to "something very like the Great Depression."

In the seventeenth installment of this year's "How I Got That Story" series, Westword staff writer Alan Prendergast talks to Angelica Herrera about his stories on local district attorney Carol Chambers. The two articles, which earned the veteran alt-weekly writer a first place finish in News Story -- Long Form, specifically examine Chambers' controversial use of Colorado's "habitual offender" statutes, which give prosecutors leeway to seek longer sentences for repeat offenders regardless of the nature of the crimes. In this Q&A, Prendergast discusses the roots of the story, how Chambers reacted, and why alt-weekly writers shouldn't shy away from covering the same ground as the daily. "Sometimes the temptation with weeklies is to shy away from stories that the dailies are already doing," he says. "But, often those stories in the dailies are poorly covered, or there are just a lot of questions left unanswered."

On the seventh anniversary of the event, the Weekly once again auctioned off a year's worth of cover art to fund a worthy cause. Last week's haul brings the total to date raised by the event to more than $78,000. The beneficiary of this year's auction has yet to be determined, but in the past the paper has funded causes like childrens' arts organizations and a work of public art.

Salt Lake Tribune columnist Sean P. Means says he doesn't "like that Savage and others have singled out Utah for their wrath" with a proposed boycott over the Mormon Church's support of California's ballot initiative banning same-sex marriage. But Means says he'd "rather engage Savage in this discussion," so he has invited him to come to Utah. Means says he'd even buy drinks for Savage and Salt Lake City Weekly founder John Saltas, who publicly dropped the "Savage Love" column last week, "to let the healing begin."

Joe Lance, who wrote the "Civic Forum" political column for Chattanooga's The Pulse until earlier this year, has entered the Tennessee city's 2009 mayoral race. "I have decided that the best way to encourage my fellow citizens to get involved in our local government is by asking them to allow me the honor of serving them as our next mayor," Lance says.

Last week, Creative Loafing asked a bankruptcy judge to authorize CEO Ben Eason to hire the investment banking firm that brokered the Reader/City Paper purchase to evaluate the company's business plan, seek new financing, and prepare the company to be sold if necessary, Atlanta Magazine's Steve Fennessy reports. Meanwhile, Eason's largest creditor, Atalaya Capital Management, asked the judge to lift the automatic stay that prevented CL from defaulting on its loan, arguing that the value of the company is falling with each passing day due to the bankruptcy filing and to "downward trends in the advertising industry." Eason tells Fennessy he stands by his decision to expand. "I think it's one of the smartest things we've done," he says. "I'd rather be navigating [the economic downturn] with Washington City Paper and Chicago Reader and [syndicated column] Straight Dope than without them." MORE: The Reader's Michael Miner weighs in, and City Paper consolidates its office into one floor.

Last week, "at the tail end of one of the few weeks in the past year in which we did not publish anything snarky about anybody, someone threw two gallons of paint on our front doors," Artvoice editor Geoff Kelly writes. "Seems a waste; we hadn't even earned it. Nonetheless, we were cleaning up all morning."

If this week's cover looked strikingly familiar to readers of the Seattle alt-weekly, it's because the two papers are almost visually identical, with new text. The lead of the '04 cover, "Do Not Despair," has been replaced with this year's "Rejoice. Revel. Repeat."

The Dallas Observer, Fort Worth Weekly, and Houston Press were all honored when the Press Club's announced its 50th annual Katie Awards Saturday night. The Press won a total of three awards in the large newspapers division, including a first-place win for Column. The Observer, which also competed in the large newspapers division, won one award. In the small and medium newspapers division, the Weekly took home a total of four awards, three of which were first-place finishes -- in Business reporting, Investigative Series or Story, and Specialty Reporting.