Weeklys, formerly known as Metro Newspapers, is an American media group established in 1985 and based in San Jose, California .
34-1017: It publishes five free alternative weekly newspapers in Northern California: Metro Silicon Valley , Good Times , the Pacific Sun , East Bay Express and the North Bay Bohemian ; and ten community newspapers: the Gilroy Dispatch' , Healdsburg Tribune , the Hollister Free Lance , the King City Rustler , the Los Gatan , the Morgan Hill Times , Salinas Valley Tribune , Aptos Life , The Pajaronian and Press Banner . Together,
68-492: 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
102-1131: A different business model than daily papers. Most alternative papers, such as The Stranger , 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
136-470: A little astonished," said Nancy Dobbs, president of the board of directors of Sonoma County Local News Initiative, which sold the newspaper's assets to Weeklys. In 1984 Dan Pulcrano put together a group of local Silicon Valley and entertainment industry investors and recruited LA Weekly executive David Cohen as co-publisher to launch Metro. From on initial circulation of 40,000 it grew to approximately 100,000. In 1990, Metro acquired Los Gatos Weekly,
170-534: A network of web sites , each covering a major U.S. metropolitan area , that pre-dated Citysearch and Microsoft's short-lived "Sidewalk" service. In 1995, Metro launched the online version of the newspaper on the web under the brand Metroactive that included several of its newspapers papers and later included a downloadable edition in PDF format. Metroactive has received several awards for its work, including: Alternative newspaper An alternative newspaper
204-720: A newspaper Pulcrano had founded eight years earlier, and the Chicago Tribune-owned Los Gatos Times-Observer. The two were merged to become Los Gatos Weekly-Times . The acquisition was the beginning of Metro's expansion into community journalism. A second alt weekly, Metro Santa Cruz, began publishing in 1994. The same year, Metro Newspapers purchased the Sonoma County Independent , which, in October 2000, expanded its distribution to cover Napa and Marin counties and
238-620: 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
272-576: 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
306-530: Is now published under the North Bay Bohemian flag. In March 2009, on the publication's 15th anniversary, Metro Santa Cruz was renamed Santa Cruz Weekly . In March 2014, Metro Newspapers acquired Good Times , the Gilroy Dispatch , the Hollister Free Lance and the Morgan Hill Times , and merged Good Times and the Santa Cruz Weekly . In 2015, Metro acquired the Pacific Sun;
340-661: Is the longest published alternative weekly in the United States. Alt Together Now | Pacific Sun The Metro weekly began celebrating its 25th year starting in March 2009, making it the most established free weekly in the South Bay Area of Northern California . Metro Silicon Valley was one of the first newspapers to publish Matt Groening 's Life in Hell , long before he created The Simpsons , and Rob Brezsny 's Real Astrology . Good Times, founded in 1975, has won
374-960: 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
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#1732797308372408-758: 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
442-1165: 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 ,
476-711: The Bohemian ceased distribution in Marin County and increased its Sonoma County and Napa County distribution. In 2020, the company introduced the Weeklys brand, acquired the East Bay Express, launched East Bay magazine and acquired the Scotts Valley-based Press Banner . In 2021, Weeklys acquired LunaGraphica Inc, a Silicon Valley design firm, which now operates as Metro.Agency. Cindy Couling, President of LunaGraphica, became
510-665: 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
544-579: The Director of Creative Services for Weeklys and Metro.Agency. In 2022, an affiliate of Weeklys acquired Bay Area Parent from Dominion Enterprises . The company is operated by its founder and longtime executive editor, Dan Pulcrano . Metro developed a group of weekly community newspapers, including the Los Gatos Weekly-Times , Saratoga News , Campbell Reporter , Willow Glen Resident and Sunnyvale Sun . Under Metro's ownership,
578-542: 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
612-820: The United States and Canada include Barcelona's BCN Mes . North Bay Bohemian The North Bay Bohemian is a weekly newspaper published in the North Bay subregion of the San Francisco Bay Area , in California , United States. The newspaper is distributed in Sonoma and Napa counties. The newspaper began publication in 1979 as The Paper in the Guerneville area of western Sonoma County by artist turned community journalist Nick Valentine and jazz pianist Bob Lucas. Elizabeth Poole bought
646-515: 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
680-728: 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 ,
714-468: The editor. The Bohemian ' s logo was originally designed by graphic designer Martin Venezky and later refined by typographer Jim Parkinson . It was based on the 19th Century wedge serif typeface Saracen as redrawn by Jonathan Hoefler . The Bohemian has won numerous awards for its work. Charity Case 1999 Lincoln Steffens Award for investigative journalism for coverage of deaths of inmates at
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#1732797308372748-411: The first online efforts by a non-daily newspaper publisher. The service offered free email accounts, online commerce, chats, posting forums, and online articles. Virtual Valley, a similar service with an emphasis on covering Silicon Valley communities, was launched the following year and helped put the city governments of San Jose, Milpitas and Los Gatos online. Also in 1994, Metro established Boulevards,
782-540: The group to McClatchy Corp. McClatchy immediately resold SVCN to Dean Singleton's MediaNews Group. In 2014, Bay Area News Group marketing director Erika Brown announced that the newspapers would be distributed to subscribers of the Mercury News, rather than generally to homes in the community. Metro was an early participant in the online publishing revolution, in 1993 launching the Livewire online service, one of
816-510: The group won numerous awards, including the California Newspaper Publishers Association 's "General Excellence" award in its Better Newspapers Contest. On December 17, 2001, Cohen, a co-founder of Metro, bought the group, which at the time included six publications and left to run Silicon Valley Community Newspapers as an independent company. Cohen sold it three years later to Knight Ridder which sold
850-427: The majority circulate on a weekly schedule. Most metropolitan areas of 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
884-579: The publication frequency was changed to weekly. In 2000, the newspaper was rebranded as the North Bay Bohemian and the circulation area was expanded to Marin and Napa counties. In 2015, Weeklys acquired the Pacific Sun , which covered Marin County, and the Bohemian withdrew from Marin County. In September 2018, Stett Holbrook resigned as the publication's editor-in-chief . In fall of 2019, longtime contributor Daedalus Howell became
918-515: 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
952-512: The publications reach a weekly audience of about half a million people, according to The Media Audit. Weeklys also operates digital publishing businesses. The alt weeklies are free-distribution, tabloid-sized newspapers emphasizing news and analysis, local coverage and in-depth coverage of arts, culture and entertainment. The Gilroy, Morgan Hill, Hollister, Watsonville, Salinas Valley and King City community newspapers are larger format broadsheet publications that are home delivered. The Pacific Sun
986-779: The purchase of the Los Gatos Weekly and Los Gatos Times-Observer, to form the Los Gatos Weekly-Times. During the 1990s the Silicon Valley Community Newspaper group expanded to include Saratoga News, Campbell Reporter, Cupertino Courier, Sunnyvale Sun and the Willow Glen Resident. It was sold to a company executive on Dec. 17, 2001. Thirteen years later, when Weeklys, then known as Metro Newspapers, acquired Santa Cruz's Good Times on March 31, 2014, it also purchased
1020-620: The seller's Gilroy, Morgan Hill and Hollister newspapers and re-entered the community publishing arena. It later acquired long established titles in Watsonville, Scotts Valley, the Salinas Valley and Healdsburg, and opened a publication in Los Gatos. The Healdsburg rescue attracted national interest after the purchase occurred within days of the 157-year-old publication's shutdown by a nonprofit owner. "We are surprised, gratified and
1054-488: The struggling publication with family money shortly after its 1979 debut and owned it until its 1990 purchase by John Boland and James Carroll. The Paper was renamed the Sonoma County Independent in 1993 and published every other week under Boland and Carroll, who moved its offices to Santa Rosa . In 1994 the Independent was purchased by Weeklys , an independent group of three Bay Area alternative weeklies , and
Weeklys - Misplaced Pages Continue
1088-448: 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 ,
1122-631: The top award in the California Journalism Awards four years in a row and is the largest circulation newspaper in Santa Cruz County, California. The company has a number of notable alumni, including British television journalist Louis Theroux , New York Times opinion writer Michelle Goldberg , former News Director of Vice News Michael Learmonth, typographer Conor Mangat and film producer Zack Stentz The company first began publishing community newspapers in 1990 with
1156-655: 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
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