The Times Publishing Co., publisher of the St. Petersburg Times, has launched tbt*, a weekly paper apparently aimed at asterisk-loving young adults. According to the Times, tbt* delivers news in short chunks with colorful photos and no attempt at serious analysis, and bills itself as "zippy news for time-challenged adults." Features also include entertainment listings, shopping tips, and advice on computers and romance. Paul Tash, editor and chairman of Times Publishing, tells reporter Helen Huntley: "There's nothing else like it on the market." AAN-member Weekly Planet (Tampa) is distributed in the same area.

Continue ReadingFaux Alt Debuts in Tampa

Chris Potter has been named Andy Newman's replacement as editor of Pittsburgh City Paper, reports Pittsburgh Business Times. "It was a huge surprise to me," says Potter, who has been the paper's managing editor since he and Newman came over from the now-defunct In Pittsburgh Newsweekly seven years ago. Potter will take over the position in November, after the City Paper's annual Best of Pittsburgh issue. "[Potter and I] have been conjoined for almost 10 years," Newman tells reporter Tim Schooley. "It's a very delicate procedure, but I think we'll both go on to lead productive lives."

Continue ReadingPotter to Succeed Newman as City Paper Editor

In an opinion piece published in Boulder Weekly, AAN executive director Richard Karpel recounts a phone interview he gave to The Daily Camera. The Boulder, Colo., daily is launching Dirt, a free weekday paper targeting 18- to 24-year-olds, and its reporter wanted a comment. Karpel obliged, explaining why Dirt, like any number of similar tabloids, would ultimately fail to reach young people: Daily papers tiptoe around potentially offensive language and subject matter; they're too "objective" for passion or point of view; and they're institutions far removed from the world most young people inhabit. The Camera chose to publish his one comment that tended to make the opposite point, so he lays out his full argument here.

Continue ReadingAAN’s Karpel Predicts Faux Alternatives Will Fail

Editor of the alt-weekly since 1998, Andy Newman will be leaving in November to try his hand as a freelance writer in New York City. "I've wanted to do this for a long time, and it seems like I should do it before they send the AARP card," he tells the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. City Paper will begin searching for his replacement immediately. Newman is currently working on a story for The Believer, and hopes to place a piece in The New Yorker within a year. He is vice president of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies' board of directors.

Continue ReadingNewman to Leave Pittsburgh City Paper

The summer of scandal in the newspaper circulation business has left advertisers and agencies worried about what could possibly be next. Most say they are placing increased scrutiny on audience statements and newspaper ad budgets, though they believe the power of the medium will protect it from any immediate advertiser backlash.

Continue ReadingDailies Struggle to Rebuild Confidence With Advertisers

The new entertainment weekly the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel plans to launch this fall could attract advertisers who prefer to stay away from the edgy, controversial content found in The Shepherd Express (an AAN member) or the Onion. That's what Karen Stoneman, media director for a Milwaukee ad firm, told The Business Journal. But AAN Executive Director Richard Karpel predicts that the new breed of tabloids will drown in their own fluff because they lack the "idiosyncrasies and oddball charm" of true alternative weeklies.

Continue ReadingNew Milwaukee Youth-Oriented Rag Could Affect Ad Rates

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel announced Monday it will start an entertainment- and lifestyle-oriented publication and companion Web site in the fall. The target age group is 25- to 34-year-olds. The still unnamed tabloid "will not be a news publication," Rick Romell reports in the Journal Sentinel. Shepherd Express, an AAN member, is also published in Milwaukee, Wis.

Continue ReadingNew Daily-Owned Free Weekly to Launch in Milwaukee

Pittsburgh Catholic apparently believes that its hometown alt-weekly should be wrapped in a brown bag and handed out from behind the counter. "We need to ensure that our children are protected from unhealthy and exploitative images of sexuality," says a representative of the local diocese who thinks it's "unconscionable" that Pittsburgh City Paper is openly distributed in public. “I’m not running a day care center,” City Paper editor Andy Newman tells the paper. “I have a newspaper, and I feel like other people are responsible for supervising their own children.”

Continue ReadingCatholic Paper Questions Alt-Weekly’s Availability to Children