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.