AAN launched a new Web site this week providing links and summaries to some of the most interesting stories in its 122 member papers. AltWeeklies.com debuted on Wednesday with a collection of 100 stories on the economy, politics and social issues, as well as movies, music, books and other arts and entertainment. The site's primary goal is to allow AAN editors to exchange articles and ideas. But it's also a place where readers will discover many more of the same type of intriguing and provoking stories they've found featured in AAN.org's This Week in Alternative Weeklies section.
In mid-April, editors of AAN papers waited in suspense to see a promised story discussing a memo by a U.S. official detailed to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. Minutes before 10 a.m. Tuesday, April 20, the investigative piece by reporter Jason Vest was posted to the Web sites of two papers, The Village Voice and The Boston Phoenix. Over the following hours and days, AAN papers from New Haven, Conn., to Mill Valley, Calif., also published the story, in print, on the Web, or both. Alerted to the article by blogs, readers rushed to alt-weeklies' Web sites in droves.
Writing in "The Reliable Source," Richard Leiby (pictured) presents evidence to support the theory that Michael Rubin wrote the memo that was the subject of Jason Vest's story for the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies last week. Leiby describes Rubin as "a thirty-something neocon intellectual" who served as a Coalition Provisional Authority political officer in Iraq for nine months. He is now a scholar at the "hawkish American Enterprise Institute." Rubin wouldn't confirm or deny that he wrote the memo.
Potential advertisers in alternative newsweeklies want to know not only how many people their promotions will reach but what types of people. How old? How educated? How rich? To supply answers, publishers of AAN papers rely on firms that do market comparisons and readership surveys. But, sometimes, research techniques don't quite deliver what publishers are looking for.
Newsweekly readers tend to be single, educated and hot to party. This much we know. Now we also know what sorts of neighborhoods they live in and how they like to spend their money. Some of the papers' most loyal readers are suburban couples raising kids, urban immigrants in multi-racial communities, active older people who like to travel, single city dwellers of all ethnicities and lower-income African-American single parents. Research firm Claritas profiled our diverse readership for Alternative Weekly Network.
Two of the main rep firms for alternative newsweeklies had significant gains in national advertising in 2003, E&P reports following an announcement by AAN today. The Ruxton Group, which represents 28 newsweeklies, experienced a 17 percent increase over 2002. Alternative Weekly Network, which represents more than 100 newsweeklies, had a 6 percent increase in national sales over 2002.
- Go to the previous page
- 1
- …
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- …
- 27
- Go to the next page
