Bryan

Bryan Osborn has left his position as publisher of Augusta, Ga., alt-weekly Metro Spirit, AAN News has learned. Osborn had been with the paper since November 2007; a replacement has not yet been named.

Last week, we noted that the Augusta Chronicle ran a house ad targeting advertisers who bypassed the daily and bought space in the city's alt-weekly. "We heard nothing about it locally from customers or readers, and skipped over it a number of times as we perused the paper," writes Metro Spirit publisher Bryan Osborn. "All of this points to the fact that buying full pages in The Chronicle is as effective as throwing money into a burning fireplace." He says the daily's ad "is a great advertising testimonial ... for Metro Spirit."

Bryan Osborn, who was named publisher of the Augusta, Ga., paper earlier this month, has spent 15 years working in various managerial roles for daily papers, but he always had his eye on the alt-universe. "I kind of had a jealousy streak and always thought, 'That would be so cool if I did that,'" he says. He tells reporter Angel Cleary about his first "corporate" meetings at Portico Publications, which owns Metro Spirit as well as AAN members C-Ville Weekly and Columbia Free Times. "It was just such a different environment. The discussions were a lot more laid back, as opposed to what would happen in a conference room with a PowerPoint presentation," he says. "When I got out here, when I got to the company, I really felt like I could be myself. I told them, I said, 'I feel like I'm home.'"