Dean Robbins, who has worked at the Madison, Wisc., alt-weekly on and off (mostly on) since 1983, will take over as editor on Jan. 5. "Isthmus has been without an editor in chief since former editor Marc Eisen stepped down from that role in October 2007," writes publisher Vince O'Hern. "Since that time the paper has been guided by an editorial board, which was formed when Eisen relinquished editorial management to concentrate on writing." Robbins, who recently took a six-month leave from the paper to help it through tough economic times, will be the fourth editor in the paper's nearly 33-year history.
Marc Eisen, who is currently executive editor of the Madison alt-weekly, is leaving the paper at the end of August as a part of cost-cutting measures, publisher Vince O'Hern says in a column. Eisen was editor until he moved into the executive editor spot last fall to have more time to write. He worked for Isthmus from 1978-1986, and then rejoined the paper in 1988. "These are difficult, challenging times in journalism," Eisen tells the Capital Times. "There's no one more expendable than the executive editor." The other staffer that falls victim to the cuts is 18-year veteran writer Tom Laskin. "These departures were not pleasant decisions to make and we do not relish saying goodbye to these folks. We hope to work with them again in the future," O'Hern writes. "Change can be and, in this instance, is hard. But the consequences of not changing, of not responding to the challenges of the business climate, would ultimately be harder."
The Madison, Wis., alt-weekly is "looking at ways to reduce expenses like everybody has to," publisher Vince O'Hern tells the Capital Times. "Nothing is decided. It may involve some people taking leaves, and some people not being on staff anymore." News editor Bill Lueders says A&E editor Dean Robbins will take an unpaid six-month leave to tend to "personal projects and other work." Other than that, he says talk of any staff changes is premature. Isthmus employs 10 editorial staffers, and the total staff size is about three dozen, according to Lueders.
A new report issued by The Media Audit reveals that 43.8 million adults have read an alternative newsweekly or visited an alt-weekly website in the past 30 days. The study, which looked at 117 papers in 88 markets, reveals an average readership of 374,296 adults in 2007 compared to 362,938 in the previous year, a 3 percent increase. In addition, the average number of unique monthly web visitors in 2007 is up nearly 7 percent from 2006. "One of the benefits for alternative newsweeklies is the opportunity to reach outside the city where papers are not as readily available," says Bob Jordan, president of International Demographics. "There are a lot of people who come into the city from the suburbs for entertainment and these alternative newspaper websites are positioned as one of the best choices for restaurant, live music, and concert recommendations." RELATED: BizReport says "advertising in alternative newspapers could result in a gold mine for many advertisers."
