After a decade at The Boston Globe, the media critic left New England's largest daily to take back his old job at The Boston Phoenix. In this piece, Jurkowitz explains why a "middle-aged journalist with mortgages" left the influence and economic benefits of a large paper for an alt-weekly "with fewer resources, less clout, and a smaller audience."
The alt-weekly has been advertising a text-messaging application known as txt2flirt, which is intended to appeal especially to young adults, Jennifer Saba reports in Editor & Publisher. Those who register can ask to be matched with someone else nearby and then tap out messages to communicate with a prospective friend or date. Each message costs 50 cents to send, and a share of the resulting income goes to the paper. The company that develops and handles the technology, g8wave, is a division of Tele-Publishing International, which is a division of Phoenix Media/Communications Group. The group owns The Boston Phoenix.
The Phoenix Media/Communications Group has purchased the monthly music magazine founded in 1987 and will begin publishing it again in May, the Portland Press Herald reports. Beginning last year, FACE had been distributed in The Maine Weekly (formerly Casco Bay Weekly). But in February the Weekly's owner, Maine Publishing, filed for bankruptcy. Media holdings of the Phoenix group include three AAN papers, The Boston Phoenix, The Portland Phoenix and The Providence Phoenix.
Match.com and People2People/Tele-Publishing International, two of the biggest operators in online and voice personals, are coming together to offer users "a robust pool of potential dates and romantic partners," the two companies announced in a joint news release today. P2P/TPI, owned by Phoenix Media Communications Group, is the largest provider of voice personals. Match.com is a global provider of Internet personals. The two together will now have more than 1,000 media clients and reach millions of singles searching for romance.
Alternative newsweeklies have found myriad ways to team up with competitors for lucrative cross-promotional arrangements. Radio is perhaps the most common partner for alt-weeklies and music events the most frequent vehicle for cooperation, Ann Hinch writes for AAN News. Television and even print, however, have been mined by AAN members “to reach a broader audience and more diverse demographic.”
Radio-station operator Saga Communications is the new owner of Champaign, Ill.'s The Octopus, which it bought earlier this month from Yesse! Communications. Senior Vice President Wayne Lada says Saga plans to add staff and build circulation.
