There were alt-weeklies everywhere before the early 90s, largely surviving by being where you would find out all the bands that were playing that week, all of the plays if your city had theater, new restaurants and clubs opening up, and the drink specials at the places you knew and loved. At some point one figured out that they could make their personal ads into "1-900" numbers, and rolled every free paper up all over the country within a few years, first making them bland, then shutting most of them down after people stopped reading them. A very few survived when their parent decided to spend a minimal amount of money on them (as the bottom fell out of the "900" number biz.)
I guess you take independent writing anywhere you can get it these days, but I'm not sure much has been lost. There will still be a market for those papers after covid, because they're basically entertainment programs, like maps to amusement parks. Maybe if what is now Village Voice Media are out of the business, they'll have a chance to flourish again.
I guess you take independent writing anywhere you can get it these days, but I'm not sure much has been lost. There will still be a market for those papers after covid, because they're basically entertainment programs, like maps to amusement parks. Maybe if what is now Village Voice Media are out of the business, they'll have a chance to flourish again.