The Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City are boosting the Salt Lake City Weekly first-quarter bottom line. The alt-weekly is also producing its first City Guide for the games and plans to make it an annual publication. Publisher John Saltas expects a 20 percent circulation jump in the next couple of months helped along by a 10 percent increase in ad rates for the five Olympic issues.
Utah has liberalized its liquor advertising laws, and Salt Lake City Weekly has lost no time in snagging a Jim Beam ad. It appears on page 7; on page 25, in a full-page ad donated by the paper, the Church of Latter Day Saints is given space to argue that alcohol advertising is a threat to society. Publisher John Saltas tells the Salt Lake City Tribune the timing was a coincidence.
Alternative newsweeklies are feeling the one-two punch of war and recession. National advertising is down across the board, but classifieds are providing a cushion. While several papers have had to lay off employees, others are taking the opportunity to add sales staff.
