The year past was a difficult one for alternative weekly papers. The decline in circulation seen in recent years accelerated. One of the biggest players, Creative Loafing Inc., completed a financial reorganization and emerged from bankruptcy. Village Voice Media, on the other hand, was threatened with involuntary bankruptcy over an uncollected court judgment.

Two alternatives stopped publishing: Los Angeles CityBeat, founded in 2003, folded in March 2009, and Port Folio Weekly, in Hampton Roads, Va., published its last print edition in February 2009, becoming an online-only publication.¹

Additionally, a major chain of gay publications shut down.

“There’s no doubt that the economy was just as hard on alternative weeklies as it was on the dailies,” said Tony Ortega, the editor of the Village Voice. “But it’s also obvious that some alt weeklies have come through the tough times in better shape than others.”

Ortega argued that the alternative weeklies had some intrinsic advantages that had helped them: a more flexible business model than daily newspapers, increased reader accessibility on the Web and the fact that many publications were already free to readers.²

Audience

The combined circulation of the weekly papers that belong to the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies dropped by nearly 7% in 2009. That came after a drop of 5% the year before.

The association, which underwent a management change in 2009, had not calculated absolute circulation figures as of the completion of this study. But Jason Zaragoza, the advertising and awards director of the association, said the declines tended to hit  publications in large markets most severely.³ While some large-market alt-weeklies were holding steady at the end of 2009 – namely the San Diego Reader and the Boston Phoenix – Zaragoza said a number of elements added to the overall decline in large-markets.⁴

Internet usage, the quality of the mainstream press and other factors may play roles, Zaragoza said.

“I don’t know if there is any one factor that is driving down the circulation numbers in the larger markets” Zaragoza said.⁵

In the biggest market, New York, the Village Voice’s circulation averaged 213,358 for the 12 months ending June 2009, down 11% from 240,265 during for the same period in 2008.  Ortega said the paper reduced the number of copies printed to save money. Saving money by printing fewer copies of the paper was a “better way to stanch the bleeding” than laying off employees, he said.

Although Village Voice does not publicly release figures, Ortega said ad revenue declines for the paper were consistent with the rest of the industry. He said the company was seeing fast growth in Web revenue and expected print revenue to increase in 2010.

The Village Voice increased its online content in 2009 and is expanding that presence further in 2010, with plans to hire more staff.⁶

Other large-market publications also experienced severe declines: 

• New York Press’ circulation fell over 41% from 53,846 for the 12 months ending June 30, 2008 to 31,538 for the same period in 2009.⁷


• LA Weekly saw an 8.5% decrease to 183,862 for the 12 months ending June 2009 from 200,886 for the same period in 2008. ⁸


• Chicago Reader dropped 19% in circulation to 97,555 for the six months ending June 2009 from 120,450 for the same period the year before.⁹


• Houston Press dipped almost 9% from 2008 to 2009, with a reported average circulation of 84,007 for the 12 months ending June 2009 from 92,268 for the same period in 2008.¹⁰

By contrast, some small-market alt-weeklies stayed fairly constant and some grew, including:

•  Reno News & Review climbed 7.8% to 23,450 for the six months ending September 2009, up from 21,726 for the same period in 2008.


• The Missoula (Mont.) Independent grew 6% in circulation to 18,357 for the six months ending March 2009 from 17,307 for the same period the year before.¹¹


• Wausau (Wis.) City Pages grew 4% in circulation to 14,331 for the 12 months ending September 2009 from 13,770 for the same period in 2008.¹²

Ownership

Creative Loafing, publisher of the Chicago Reader and Washington City Paper, emerged inform bankruptcy in fall 2009 under the ownership of Atalaya Capital Management, a hedge fund that was Creative Loafing’s primary creditor.¹³

In November 2009, Creative Loafing hired a new chief executive, Marty Petty, the former publisher of the St. Petersburg Times and the Hartford (Conn.) Courant. Creative Loafing publishes six alternative newsweeklies: The Chicago Reader, Washington City Paper and Creative Loafing Atlanta, Tampa, Charlotte and Sarasota.¹⁴ In January 2010, the company hired a new chief marketing officer, Henry E. Scott.¹⁵ Also in January, Creative Loafing Atlanta promoted senior editor Mara Shalhoup to editor in chief.¹⁶

Washington City Paper reported that its full-time editorial staff numbered 10 in January 2010, down from 22 in 2006.¹⁷ In February 2010, Erik Wemple, the paper’s editor, left to take over editorial operations for an unnamed local news website owned by Allbritton Communications.¹⁸

Another large publisher, Village Voice Media Holdings began 2010 still enmeshed in a messy legal dispute. The company owns 14 alternative weeklies throughout the country, including the venerable Village Voice.

Its legal troubles stem from a 2004 case between Village Voice Media’s San Francisco Weekly and its rival, San Francisco Bay Guardian. The Guardian alleged that the Weekly had engaged in predatory pricing, cutting the price of its ads in order to drive its rival out of business. A jury agreed and in 2008 awarded the Guardian more than $6 million, which grew to $21 million with interest and penalties.¹⁹ 

In January 2010, the San Francisco Superior Court placed a lien on Village Voice Media as the Bay Guardian attempted to collect the $21 million judgment.²⁰ Bloomberg News reported that the Guardian was considering asking the court to force Village Voice Media into involuntary bankruptcy to collect the debt.²¹

SF Weekly dropped 15% to 85,046 for the six months ending June 30, 2009 from 100,124 for the same period in 2008.²²

Other Village Voice alt-weeklies had a tough year as well:

• New Times Broward-Palm Beach dropped 31.9% in circulation from about 80,000 to 54,500 in 2009 and cut its newsroom staff from 17 to 13.²³


• LA Weekly, the last remaining alternative weekly in Los Angeles, reported it was fighting to survive in November 2009, citing a steep decline in advertising demand.²⁴

Gay Publications

Gay publications, not traditionally defined as alt-weeklies, had a particularly difficult year in 2009.

Window Media and Unite Media, the parent companies of several gay publications closed in November 2009. The companies, both owned by the Avalon Equity Fund, did not meet capital requirements required by a loan from the Small Business Administration.

The papers that closed included the 40-year-old Washington Blade, as well as Southern Voice (Atlanta), the Houston Voice, the South Florida Blade, David Atlanta magazine and 411 Magazine.²⁵ Some of the newspapers have plans to reorganize under new owners.²⁶

Other gay publications that closed in 2009 include the New Mexico Voice, the New York Blade, HX Magazine, Genre Magazine, the New England Blade and the Houston Voice.²⁷

Digital

Alternative weeklies, like more traditional papers, are trying to move to digital platforms. In 2009 those efforts seemed to gather particular focus on introducing mobile apps designed to take advantage of the popularity of smartphones and other mobile devices.

In October 2009, LA Weekly released an iPhone app that provides concert, restaurant and event listings and recommendations from the magazine.²⁸

In January 2010, Philadelphia Weekly launched a Happy Hour Guide app for the iPhone, based its online version. The app helps users to find bars, use Twitter to notify friends and call a cab.²⁹

Charleston (S.C.) City Paper launched a similar app in January 2010, the Cocktail Compass that shows nearly happy hours based on a person’s current location.³⁰

The Village Voice newspapers  did the same in March 2010, releasing a happy hour app in partnership with GoTime. The app works in 30 U.S. cities.³¹

The Monterey County Weekly launched a redesigned website and a corresponding mobile app in October 2009. The California alternative newspaper’s website has more content as well as a restaurant and wine search.³²

Other alt-weeklies focused on improving their websites.

• Palo Alto Weekly announced a new digital version of its paper in November 2009 that more closely resembles reading a physical newspaper online.³³


• Pittsburgh City Paper launched CPtv on its website in January 2010, with a live hour-long daily video webcast as well as video clips from local news stories.³⁴