An alternative newspaper is a type of newspaper that eschews comprehensive coverage of general news in favor of stylized reporting, opinionated reviews and columns , investigations into edgy topics and magazine -style feature stories highlighting local people and culture. Its news coverage is more locally focused, and their target audiences are younger than those of daily newspapers. Typically, alternative newspapers are published in tabloid format and printed on newsprint . Other names for such publications include alternative weekly , alternative newsweekly , and alt weekly , as the majority circulate on a weekly schedule.
21-696: SF Weekly is an online music publication and formerly alternative weekly newspaper founded in the 1970s in San Francisco, California . It was distributed every Thursday, and was published by the San Francisco Print Media Company. The paper has won national journalism awards, and sponsored the SF Weekly Music Awards . SF Weekly was founded locally in the late 1970s by Christopher Hildreth and Edward Bachman and originally named San Francisco Music Calendar,
42-492: 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. 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. The Cleveland Free Times recommenced publication in 2003 under
63-645: A popular vote for nominees and were announced in October at the Warfield Theatre . SF Weekly was the subject of ethical controversy in January 2006, when a column about the AVN Awards misidentified the event's location and honorees. The paper's editor had apparently altered a column about a different event from years before. In July 2015, after Matt Saincome wrote Counting Cards at Graton Casino ,
84-620: Is a contingent of conservative and libertarian alt-weeklies. Styles vary sharply among alternative newspapers; 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
105-960: The Aquarian Weekly in North Jersey , the Colorado Springs Independent , the Good Times in Santa Cruz , California, New Times in San Luis Obispo and the Sun in Northern Santa Barbara County , California. Canadian examples of owner-operated, non-chain owned alternative papers include Vancouver's The Georgia Straight , Toronto's NOW Magazine , Edmonton's Vue Weekly and Halifax's The Coast . Examples outside
126-758: The Hartford Advocate and New Haven Advocate . Creative Loafing , originally only an Atlanta -based alternative weekly, grew into Creative Loafing, Inc. which owned papers in three other southern U.S. cities , as well as the Chicago Reader and Washington City Paper . Village Voice Media and New Times Media merged in 2006; before that, they were the two largest chains. 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
147-1031: The Houston Press , SF Weekly , the Village Voice , the New York Press , the Metro Times , the LA Weekly , the Boise Weekly and the Long Island Press , have been free, earning revenue through the sale of advertising space. They sometimes 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 papers feature an annual "best of" issue, profiling businesses that readers voted
168-1223: The Pacific Sun , the Bohemian in California's Sonoma and Napa counties, the San Diego Reader , Isthmus in Madison, Wisconsin , Flagpole Magazine in Athens, Georgia , the Boulder Weekly , Willamette Week in Portland, Oregon , Independent Weekly , Yes! Weekly , Creative Loafing , and Triad City Beat in North Carolina , the Austin Chronicle in Texas , The Stranger in Seattle, Washington , Artvoice in Buffalo, New York ,
189-964: The Bay Guardian out of business by selling ads below cost. The Guardian won the suit in March, 2008, and was granted $ 6.2 million in damages, a figure that swelled to $ 21 million with antitrust penalties and interest by June 2010. After the verdict, the Guardian obtained court orders allowing it to seize and sell the Weekly ' s two delivery trucks and collect half of the Weekly ' s ad revenue. The offices of SF Weekly are on Market Street . Previous locations have included: 225 Bush Street , 55 Francisco Street, Suite 3800 of 185 Berry Street (China Basin Landing), and 425 Brannan Street. Alternative weekly Most metropolitan areas of
210-665: The Dancing Bug , and Ted Rall 's political cartoons are also common. The Village Voice , based in New York City , was one of the first and best-known examples of the form. Since the Voice's demise in 2018, Marin County 's Pacific Sun , founded in 1963, is now the longest-running alternative weekly. The Association of Alternative Newsmedia is the alternative weeklies' trade association. The Alternative Weekly Network and
231-575: The Magazine or Poster Art . Hildreth saw a need for local artists to have a place to advertise performances and articles. The key feature was the centerfold calendar listings for local art events. The paper was bought by Village Voice Media (then New Times Media ) in 1995. In September 2012, Village Voice Media executives Scott Tobias, Christine Brennan and Jeff Mars bought Village Voice Media's papers and associated web properties from its founders and formed Voice Media Group . Four months later, SF Weekly
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#1732780128240252-542: The Ruxton Group are national advertising sales representatives for alternative weeklies. Some alternative newspapers are independent. However, due in part to increasing concentration of media ownership , many have been bought or launched by larger media conglomerates . The Tribune Company , a multibillion-dollar company that owns the Chicago Tribune , owns four New England alternative weeklies, including
273-514: The United States and Canada are home to at least one alternative paper. These papers are generally found in such urban areas, although a few publish in smaller cities, in rural areas or exurban areas where they may be referred to as an alt monthly due to the less frequent publication schedule. Alternative papers have usually operated under a different business model than daily papers. Most alternative papers, such as The Stranger ,
294-515: 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 newspapers 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
315-531: The casino notified SF Weekly of its intention to pull tens of thousands of dollars in ad buys, the publisher of SF Weekly , Glenn Zuehls, reportedly demanded that SF Weekly staff remedy the advertiser with a favorable cover story, by directly assigning the story to a reporter. The San Francisco Bay Guardian , another free alternative weekly newspaper in the San Francisco Bay Area , sued SF Weekly in civil court, alleging that it tried to put
336-728: The creation of the Portland Phoenix . From 1992 through 2005, PM/GC owned and operated the Worcester Phoenix in Worcester, Massachusetts , but PM/GC folded that branch because of Worcester's dwindling art scene. Nonetheless, a number of owner-operated, non-chain owned alternative papers survive, among them Metro Silicon Valley in San Jose , Pittsburgh City Paper in Pittsburgh , Salt Lake City Weekly ,
357-528: The only print alternative weekly in San Francisco. In December 2020, Clint Reilly Communications bought SF Weekly together with the Examiner . In September 2021 it announced that, at the end of that month it would cease publication "for the foreseeable future". It had been adversely affected by the loss of classified ads after the rise of Craigslist . The annual SF Weekly Music Awards were based on
378-515: The publication group Kildysart LLC, while the assets of New Times LA were sold to Southland Publishing and relaunched as LA CityBeat . 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. The deal
399-448: 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 ,
420-655: Was approved by the Justice Department and, on January 31, 2006, the companies merged into one, taking the name Village Voice Media. Phoenix Media/Communications Group , owner of the popular Boston alternative weekly the Boston Phoenix , expanded to Providence, Rhode Island in 1988 with their purchase of NewPaper , which was renamed the Providence Phoenix . In 1999, PM/CG expanded further through New England to Portland, Maine with
441-480: Was sold to the San Francisco Media Company, owners of The San Francisco Examiner and the Weekly ' s long-time rival San Francisco Bay Guardian . The publishers then had control of three of the four major English-language newspapers in San Francisco. In 2014, San Francisco Media Co. became fully owned by Black Press . The Bay Guardian was closed in 2014, leaving the Weekly as
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