After nearly 14 years apart, the Alternative Weekly Network (AWN) and the Sacramento News & Review are once again sharing office space, as AWN has moved into the News & Review's new green building. "We are returning to where it all began," AWN executive director Mark Hanzlik says. Hanzlik adds that in addition to the physical move, the company is currently retooling the AWN website, and upgrading some of the operational processes of the cooperative.
The websites represented by the cooperative now represent 8.735 million unique visitors monthly, AWN says in a release. That's an increase of roughly 200 percent over last year. AWN now handles national sales for 91 AAN member websites, as well as the sites for many non-AAN newsweeklies and magazines. "It's nice to see this kind of growth in our network, whether it's from increased visitors on alt-weekly sites, or by adding additional sites to our cooperative network," executive director Mark Hanzlik says. "Either way, we're now making an impressive imprint in the digital world, and can now take our product to market more effectively."
Alternative Weekly Network executive director Mark Hanzlik reports that audited returns from a group of 96 Verified Audit Circulation clients, who are also members of AWN or Ruxton, have declined from 6.9 percent in 2001 to a current level of 5.7 percent. Hanzlik bases his findings on a spreadsheet analysis of recent VAC data, which he compares to a previous VAC report encompassing 76 alt-weeklies. "We sometimes use this return figure in conjunction with the circulation audit information and readership reports to reinforce the value of alternative newspapers on the street!" says Hanzlik. The spreadsheet can be downloaded by AAN members from this page in the AAN Resource Library.
