"Starting Oct. 30, Quick will become focused exclusively on entertainment and nightlife rather than its current offering of news summaries and entertainment-related stories," the Morning News reports. "It also will become a weekly appearing Thursdays, rather than publishing five days a week."
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's free weekly will target young readers by focusing on entertainment and short news items, according to the Arkansas Times. Internal memos provided to the Times reportedly reference the alt-weekly repeatedly, and reveal that "Focus" and "Mo" (as in, "More") are possible names for the new publication. Times Publisher Alan Leveritt accuses the D-G of starting the faux-alt "to eliminate a strong dissenting voice ... and to further monopolize the newspaper advertising market." But Leveritt is prepared to fight. "Over the last 30 some odd years any number of competitors have tried to swallow the Arkansas Times," Leveritt says. "We're about as digestible as hickory nuts."
The North Jersey Media Group has pulled the plug on several of its publications, including what a local Web site calls its "faux-alt" weekly. "We at City Belt were never too impressed with Exit," writes Jon Whiten, editor of both City Belt and AltWeeklies.com. "As people who work inside the alternative press, Exit often felt like it was a labor of business, rather than a labor of love. The paper was improving, though -- becoming more substantial. But it looks like, as in so many other cases, business won out."
