How can weeklies that have been the so-called alternative to dominant dailies fill the void when those dailies are no longer daily? There's clearly room for some alts to capitalize on the holes left when the big guys become a lot less big, especially when it comes to news.
The Long Island Press brought home a total of 23 awards at the New York Press Association (NYPA)'s 2010 Better Newspaper Contest when winners were announced last weekend.
Bill Brod, who purchased New Times from Art Zimmer last week, says he was convinced that the alt-weekly would be a sound investment by, among other things, the collective 140-plus years of staff experience. "The commitment to this publication by several members of the staff just speaks volumes to me about the quality of the paper," he says. He goes on to discuss his plans for the paper, including how to better integrate New Times' website with the print edition.
Citing the need for new and younger leadership, Art Zimmer has sold the alt-weekly to local entrepreneur William Brod, who took over operations Wednesday morning. Zimmer, who is 71 years old, purchased the paper in 1984. In a letter to the staff, Zimmer says he's had "several opportunities to sell the paper (and for more money), but most included out of town people. I feel local ownership of media, especially like the New Times is very important." Brod says he doesn't expect any layoffs as a result of the ownership change; in fact, he says he plans to hire new staff soon to beef up New Times' web presence. "I think the New Times is in a unique and the most unique position to speak to the community in a way no other media organization can," Brod says. "We can be proactive, go to people, bring people together we can follow up and push politicians and heads of organization or in authority to do what they should do or said they were going to do."
The New York Press Association announced the winners of its annual Best Newspaper Contest this past weekend, and four alt-weeklies were in the mix. The Long Island Press took home nine awards, including first-place wins for Coverage of Elections/Politics; News Story; and Sports Feature. The New York Press won five total awards, including firsts for Coverage of Business, Financial & Economic News; Coverage of Crime/Police/Courts; Feature Story; and Best Use of Color. Syracuse New Times won five awards as well, including a first-place finish in the Editorial Cartoon category. Ithaca Times took home four awards, including a first-place nod for Best Column.
"It was the greatest 11 years that I've spent in many ways, lucky to do the things that I love doing," Ken Simon says of the time he founded and ran the alt-weekly. "I helped to invent the concept of the alternative newspaper, me and the people who worked with me. The Syracuse New Times is the third-oldest alternative weekly, and that's something, especially when you consider that this is Syracuse; it isn't San Francisco or Boston or Chicago or New York City." New Times is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.
The papers won a total of 24 awards in the New York Press Association's annual Better Newspaper Contest. Long Island Press won eight awards, including the Sharon R. Fulmer Award for Community Leadership and first-place wins for Coverage of Elections/Politics, Feature Story, Headline Writing, and In-Depth Reporting. Syracuse New Times and the Ithaca Times won five awards each, with New Times taking first for Advertising Excellence, Special Holiday Edition and Sports Action Photo and the Times placing first for Coverage of the Environment and Coverage of Local Government. The New York Press also won six awards.
"Twenty years ago, when I ended my anniversary note with 'I look forward to the second 20 years,' I had no idea how fast the second two decades would go," writes publisher and owner Art Zimmer. "I feel the next 20 years will be even bigger and better for The New Times and all of Central New York. Sure, things are down right now, but those of us who have been around 40 years or more (like The New Times) have seen these down cycles several times already."
Joe Glisson, who has been New Times' political cartoonist for 25 years, is celebrating with a new retrospective book, Seems Like Old Times. "I had done the first book [1986's Dome Sweet Dome] a number of years ago, and I thought that I would like to have a companion to it," he says. "And this is the 25th year that I've been doing this, so I thought it was an appropriate time to do a retrospective. I don't know if anybody else feels that way, but I wanted to do it." Read more from Glisson in a Q&A posted at AltWeeklies.com.
