Alternative weekly
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An alternative weekly is a type of weekly newspaper that eschews comprehensive coverage of general news in favor of opinionated reviews and columns, investigations into edgy topics and magazine-style feature stories highlighting local people and culture. Their news coverage is more local-centric than larger daily papers and they target younger audiences. The typical alternative weekly is tabloid-sized and printed on newsprint. Different names for alternative weeklies include alternative newsweekly, alternative newspaper and alt weekly.
Most metropolitan areas of the United States and Canada are home to at least one alternative weekly. These papers are generally found in such urban areas, although a few publish in smaller cities, in rural areas or exurban areas.
Most alternative weeklies considers themselves a form of alternative media and are independent of larger media conglomerates, although there are many exceptions (see below). They usually operate under a different business model than daily papers. Most alternative weeklies are free, earning revenue through the sale of advertising space; they are a favored advertising outlet of local bars, clubs, art galleries, cafés, concert venues, and retail stores. They also often include ads for adult entertainment, such as adult bookstores and strip clubs, which are prohibited in many mainstream daily newspapers. They usually include comprehensive classified and personal ad sections and event listings as well.
Many alternative weeklies feature an annual "best of" issue, profiling businesses that readers voted the best of their type in the area. Often these papers send out certificates that the businesses hang on their wall or window. This further cements the paper's ties to local businesses.
Alternative weeklies represent the more commercialized and mainstream evolution of the underground press associated with the 1960s counterculture. Their focus remains on arts and entertainment and social and political reportage. Editorial positions at alternative weeklies are predominantly left-leaning, though there is a small contingent of strongly conservative and/or libertarian alt-weeklies. Their styles vary sharply; some affect a satirical, ironic tone, while others embrace a more straightforward approach to reporting.
Columns commonly syndicated to alternative weeklies include "The Straight Dope," Dan Savage's "Savage Love," Rob Breszny's "Free Will Astrology," and Ben Tausig's crossword puzzle "Ink Well." Quirky, non-mainstream comics, such as Matt Groening's Life in Hell, Lynda Barry's Ernie Pook's Comeek, Ruben Bolling's Tom the Dancing Bug, and Ted Rall's political cartoons are also common.
The Village Voice, based in New York City, is one of the first and best-known examples of the form.
The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies is the alternative weeklies' trade association. The Alternative Weekly Network and the Ruxton Group are national advertising sales representatives for alternative weeklies.
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[edit] Chains and mergers
Because of their localized nature, most alternative weeklies are independent. However, due in part to increasing concentration of media ownership, many are being bought or launched by larger media conglomerates. The Tribune Company, a multi-billion dollar company that owns the Chicago Cubs and Chicago Tribune owns four New England alternative weeklies, including the Hartford Advocate and New Haven Advocate.
Creative Loafing, originally only an Atlanta-based alternative weekly, grew into Creative Loafing, Inc. which owns papers in three other southern U.S. cities. Similarly, Detroit's Metro Times branched-out to include papers in Ann Arbor, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario.
The two largest chains were Village Voice Media and New Times Media and they have recently merged.
The pre-merger Village Voice Media, an outgrowth of New York City’s Village Voice, included LA Weekly, OC Weekly Seattle Weekly, Minneapolis City Pages, and Nashville Scene.
New Times Media included at the time of the merger Cleveland Scene, Dallas Observer, Westword, East Bay Express, New Times Broward-Palm Beach, Houston Press, The Pitch, Miami New Times, Phoenix New Times, SF Weekly, and Riverfront Times.
In 2003, the two companies entered into a non-competition agreement which stated that the two would not publish in the same market. Because of this, New Times Media eliminated New Times LA, a competitor to Village Voice Media's LA Weekly, and Village Voice Media ceased publishing Cleveland Free Times, a competitor to New Times Media's Cleveland Scene. The US Justice Department launched an antitrust investigation into the agreement.[1] The case was settled out of court with the two companies agreeing to make available the publishing assets and titles of their defunct papers to potential competitors.[2]
On October 24, 2005, New Times Media announced a deal to acquire Village Voice Media, creating a chain of 17 free weekly newspapers around the country with a combined circulation of 1.8 million and controlling a quarter of the weekly circulation of alternative weekly newspapers in North America [3]. The deal was approved by the Justice Department and, on January 31, 2006, the companies merged into one. It will keep the name Village Voice Media [4].
Many editors and reporters of alternative weeklies and many longtime readers of Village Voice felt that the merger was against the spirit of alt weeklies and accused the Village Voice Media of selling out. Others bemoan the effects such a large chain may have on the independent spirit of alt weeklies.
Nonetheless, a number of owner-operated, non-chain owned alternative weeklies survive, among them Metro Silicon Valley in San Jose, California, Salt Lake City Weekly, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, the San Diego Reader, Madison, Wisconsin's Isthmus, Willamette Week in Portland, Oregon, Independent Weekly in North Carolina's Triangle region, the Austin Chronicle in Texas and Artvoice in Buffalo, New York.
[edit] Alternative weeklies
[edit] Canada
- The Coast, Halifax County, Nova Scotia [5]
- Echo Weekly, Kitchener, Ontario and surrounding area [6]
- eye weekly, Toronto, Ontario [7]
- FFWD, Calgary, Alberta [8]
- The Georgia Straight, Vancouver, British Columbia [9]
- here, chain in the Maritime province of New Brunswick
- Hour, Montreal, Quebec [10]
- Ici Montréal, Montreal, Quebec (French language) [11]
- Monday Magazine, Victoria, British Columbia [12]
- Montreal Mirror, Montreal, Quebec [13]
- NOW Magazine, Toronto, Ontario [14]
- Ottawa XPress, Ottawa, Ontario [15]
- upfront ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario [16]
- upfront windsor, Windsor, Ontario [17]
- Planet S, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (every 2 weeks)
- The Plant, Montreal, Quebec [18]
- Pulse Niagara, St. Catharines-Niagara, Ontario [19]
- The Scope, St. John's, Newfoundland [20]
- SEE Magazine, Edmonton, Alberta [21]
- Uptown, Winnipeg, Manitoba [22]
- View Magazine, Hamilton, Ontario
- Voir, chain headquartered in Quebec (French language) [23]
- Vue Weekly, Edmonton, Alberta [24]
[edit] United States
- Anchorage Press, Anchorage, Alaska [25]
- Arkansas Times, Little Rock, Arkansas [26]
- Austin Chronicle, Austin, Texas [27]
- Artvoice, Buffalo, New York [28]
- Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore, Maryland [29]
- The Beast, Buffalo, New York [30]
- Birmingham Weekly, Birmingham, Alabama [31]
- Boise Weekly, Boise, Idaho [32]
- Boston Phoenix, Boston, Massachusetts [33]
- Boulder Weekly, Boulder, Colorado [34]
- Chicago Reader, Chicago, Illinois [35]
- Chico News & Review, Chico, California [36]
- CityBeat, Cincinnati, Ohio [37]
- CityLife, Las Vegas, Nevada [38]
- City Pages, Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota [39], part of the Village Voice Media chain
- City Paper, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania [40]
- City Pulse, Lansing, Michigan [41]
- Cityview, Des Moines, Iowa [42]
- Cleveland Scene, Cleveland, Ohio [43], owned by the New Times Media chain
- Colorado Springs Independent, Colorado Springs, Colorado [44]
- Columbia City Paper, Columbia, South Carolina [45]
- Creative Loafing, Atlanta, Georgia, Charlotte, North Carolina and Tampa, Florida [46]
- Dallas Observer, Dallas, Texas, owned by the New Times Media chain [47]
- Dayton City Paper, Dayton, Ohio [48]
- East Bay Express, Oakland, California, owned by the New Times Media chain [49]
- Eugene Weekly, Eugene, Oregon [50]
- Flagpole, Athens, Georgia [51]
- Hartford Advocate, Hartford, Connecticut [52]
- High Plains Reader, Fargo, North Dakota [53]
- Hippo Press, Manchester, Nashua and Concord, New Hampshire [54]
- The Hook weekly, Charlottesville, Virginia [55]
- The Hub Weekly, Champaign, Illinois [56]
- Honolulu Weekly, Honolulu, Hawaii [57]
- Houston Press, Houston, Texas, part of the New Times Media chain [58]
- Illinois Times, Springfield, Illinois [59]
- Isthmus, Madison, Wisconsin [60]
- Folio Weekly, Jacksonville, Florida [61]
- The Free Times, Cleveland, Ohio [62]
- The Jackson Free Press, Jackson, Mississippi [63]
- Independent Weekly, Durham, North Carolina [64]
- LA Weekly, Los Angeles, California [65], part of the Village Voice Media chain
- "LA Alternative,"Los Angeles,California [66]
- Las Vegas Weekly, Las Vegas, Nevada [67]
- Long Island Press, Long Island, New York [68]
- Los Angeles CityBeat, Los Angeles, California [69]
- Louisville Eccentric Observer, Louisville, Kentucky [70]
- Memphis Flyer, Memphis, Tennessee [71]
- Metro Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California [72]
- Metro Silicon Valley, San Jose, California [73]
- Metro Times chain publishing in Detroit and Ann Arbor, Michigan; Southeastern Michigan; Windsor and Southern Ontario, Canada [74]
- Metroland, Albany, New York [75]
- Miami New Times Media, Miami, Florida, owned by the New Times Media chain [76]
- Nashville Scene, Nashville, Tennessee, owned by the New Times Media chain [77]
- New Haven Advocate, New Haven, Connecticut [78]
- New Times Media Broward-Palm Beach, Broward and Palm Beach, Florida, owned by the New Times Media chain [79]
- New York Press, New York, New York [80]
- News & Review, small chain publishing in Reno, Nevada and Chico and Sacramento, California [81]
- North Bay Bohemian, Santa Cruz and San Jose, California [82]
- Nuvo Newsweekly, Indianapolis, Indiana [83]
- OC Weekly, Orange County, California [84], part of the Village Voice Media chain
- Oklahoma Gazette, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma metropolitan area [85]
- Orlando Weekly, Orlando, Florida [86]
- Omaha City Weekly, Omaha, Nebraska [87]
- Omaha Reader, Omaha, Nebraska [88]
- That Other Paper, Austin, Texas [89]
- The Other Paper, Columbus, Ohio
- Philadelphia City Paper, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania [90]
- Philadelphia Weekly, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania [91]
- Phoenix New Times, Phoenix, Arizona, owned by the New Times Media chain [92]
- The Pitch, Kansas City, Missouri, owned by the New Times Media chain [93]
- Pittsburgh City Paper, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania [94]
- Portland Mercury, Portland, Oregon, [95]
- Public News, Houston, Texas, [96]
- Pulse Weekly, Allentown, Pennsylvania [97]
- Real Detroit Weekly, Detroit, Michigan and surrounding area [98]
- Reno News & Review, Reno, Nevada [99]
- River Cities Reader, Davenport, Iowa [100]
- Rock City News, Los Angeles, California [101]
- The Riverfront Times, St. Louis, Missouri, owned by the New Times Media chain [102]
- Sacramento News & Review, Sacramento, California [103]
- Salt Lake City Weekly, Salt Lake City, Utah [104]
- San Antonio Current, San Antonio, Texas [105]
- San Diego City Beat, San Diego, California [106]
- San Diego Reader, San Diego, California [107]
- San Francisco Bay Guardian, San Francisco, California [108]
- Seattle Weekly, Seattle, Washington [109], part of the Village Voice Media chain
- Seven Days, Burlington, Vermont [110]
- Shepherd Express, Milwaukee, WI [111]
- SF Weekly, San Francisco, California, owned by the New Times Media chain [112]
- The Stranger , Seattle, Washington [113]
- Tucson Weekly, Tucson, Arizona [114]
- Village Voice, New York, New York [115]
- Washington City Paper, Washington, DC [116]
- Weekly Alibi, Albuquerque, New Mexico [117]
- Weekly Dig, Boston, Massachusetts [118]
- Westword, Denver, Colorado, owned by the New Times Media chain [119]
- Willamette Week, Portland, Oregon [120]
- Worcester Magazine, Worcester, Massachusetts [121]
[edit] Europe
- Amsterdam Weekly, Amsterdam, The Netherlands [122]
[edit] Defunct alternative weeklies
- Bellingham Weekly, Bellingham, Washington [123]
- Express, Santa Cruz, California
- The Great Speckled Bird, Atlanta, Georgia
- INPGH (pronounced "In Pittsburgh"), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- The LA Reader, Los Angeles, California
- New Times LA, Los Angeles, California
- North Carolina Anvil, Durham, North Carolina
- Punchline, Richmond, Virginia
- Real Paper, Boston, Massachusetts
- The Seattle Sun, (1974–1982) Seattle, Washington
- Snitch, Louisville, Kentucky
- Urbanview, Oakland, California
