2004 Annual Report - Alternative Media

Alternative weeklies were not spared from the large-scale consolidation that hit the media in general in the 1990s. While the alternative press has historically been among the most local of media, a series of small-time publications aimed at getting dollars from local advertisers and covering local stories the big media miss, this image has changed. Today alternative weeklies, particularly in the big cities are controlled by a small group of companies. The biggest owners are New Times (which owns papers in Phoenix, Houston, Dallas, San Francisco, Miami and Denver) and Village Voice Media (which owns The Village Voice in New York City and papers in Los Angeles, Seattle, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Nashville and Orange County).

Newsweeklies Owned by New Times and Village Voice

New Times	Village Voice Media
Cleveland Scene Dallas Observer East Bay Express (Oakland, Calif.) Houston Press Miami New Times New Times Broward-Palm Beach Phoenix New Times The Pitch (Kansas City) Riverfront Times (St. Louis) SF Weekly Westword (Denver)	City Pages (Twin Cities) LA Weekly Nashville Scene OC Weekly (Orange County, Calif.) Seattle Weekly The Village Voice

Source: Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, directory pages, www.aan.org

How Alternative Are They?

In fact, increasingly there are concerns that the alternative weeklies are becoming more like their daily newspaper counterparts than some would like. Case in point was the deal in 2002 between New Times and Village Voice Media, in which the two agreed to close papers in markets where the other company has the stronger paper. New Times closed its Los Angeles News Times to save money from competing with Village Voice Media's LA Weekly. At the same time Village Voice closed the Cleveland Free Times, ceding the city to the New Times' Cleveland Scene.⁸

In five of the nation's 10 largest cities, New Times or Village Voice controls the main alternative weekly. If one adds in a third company, Times Shamrock, then three companies control the primary alternative weekly in seven of the 10 largest cities. These numbers belie the old image of the idea-driven small alternative weekly and instead create an image of an increasingly corporatized world of money-making free tabloids. But, as mentioned above, if there is a medium that seems to have the ability to change with the economic times, it is this one. If and when the economy improves and the advertising environment booms again, the question is whether smaller, more independent weeklies will appear. This possibility bears watching in the coming years.