Potential advertisers in alternative newsweeklies want to know not only how many people their promotions will reach but what types of people. How old? How educated? How rich? To supply answers, publishers of AAN papers rely on firms that do market comparisons and readership surveys. But, sometimes, research techniques don't quite deliver what publishers are looking for.
Newsweekly readers tend to be single, educated and hot to party. This much we know. Now we also know what sorts of neighborhoods they live in and how they like to spend their money. Some of the papers' most loyal readers are suburban couples raising kids, urban immigrants in multi-racial communities, active older people who like to travel, single city dwellers of all ethnicities and lower-income African-American single parents. Research firm Claritas profiled our diverse readership for Alternative Weekly Network.
Two of the main rep firms for alternative newsweeklies had significant gains in national advertising in 2003, E&P reports following an announcement by AAN today. The Ruxton Group, which represents 28 newsweeklies, experienced a 17 percent increase over 2002. Alternative Weekly Network, which represents more than 100 newsweeklies, had a 6 percent increase in national sales over 2002.
The Alternative Weekly Network announces six new members, including the Times Shamrock Alternative Newsweekly Group's four alt-weeklies, which moved over from the Ruxton Group. Three of the papers -- San Antonio Current, Detroit's Metro Times and Orlando Weekly (all except Baltimore City Paper) -- were former AWN members that shifted to Ruxton when their parent company, Alternative Media, Inc., was purchased by Times Shamrock in 1999. "They’re back now…and we could not be more pleased," AWN says in its September newsletter.
After a devastating drop in advertising sales in January, the first-quarter of 2002 is beginning to look better at the two major alt-weekly advertising networks. AWN’s Executive Director Mark Hanzlik projects a first-quarter sales decline of 37 percent, up from a more than 70 percent drop in January. Ruxton President and COO Michele Laven has also has seen a slight rebound.
The category is off more than 50 percent this year, says AWN's Mark Hanzlik, who expects cig ads to remain in the ashcan for the foreseeable future. We already knew it, but now everyone else does too, since Frank Lewis reported it in the Philadelphia City Paper.
