#altweekly

[indieephemera]

Advertising insert from alternative newspaper The Boston Phoenix, promoting their concert showcase of local bands playing at the Coop bookstore in Harvard Square on September 25, 1988.

This was actually the second Boston Phoenix/WFNX-sponsored concert event I attended. The first one had happened the previous weekend, at the MIT location of The Coop. The presence of three local bands on that bill was completely overshadowed for me by the incongruous presence of Marty Willson-Piper of The Church, there to play a solo set in support of his latest album on Rykodisc. But I got there early enough to catch the local acts, opening my eyes ever-so-slightly to the presence of a local music scene.

So when I learned of another free outdoor concert the following weekend, I was all in, even minus any star power. I had never heard of any of these local bands before, either. But maybe some of them would good?

Turns out, I was right. The set by Galaxie 500, just a few weeks before the release of their debut album, Today, was revelatory. This is... jangly? Kind of like, uh... R.E.M.? (It would be a few years yet before I heard The Velvet Underground for the first time.) I ended up reviewing their set, along with the rest of the acts performing that day, for my high school newspaper.

In fact, I also fell pretty hard for local rockers Heretix, whose dramatic, slightly goth sound would fit right in on local radio. Heck, I enjoyed everyone that played that day, from the bluesy, garage-rock of The Titanics to just-shy-of-metal The Unattached to, yes, even the ska bands (Plate O’ Shrimp and Bim Skala Bim). I even captured songs from a couple of the band’s sets on my shitty tape recorded though, alas, not the one by Galaxie 500.

So even though I felt a little out of place hanging out by myself at an event filled with older people (the event was  clearly meant for college students), it was good training for my rock club-going future self.

[newmanology]

Vintage Magazine Cover #36:

The Stranger (Seattle), March 27-April 2, 1997.

Yes, it's technically a newspaper (an altweekly), but this cover stands as one of the greatest (in my mind) publication covers of all time. When the Seattle city council passed an anti-public postering ordinance (with stiff fines), The Stranger published a special Poster Ban Issue. Street/wall/telephone pole postering was a critical part of the development and maintenance of Seattle's arts, music, and politics scenes, a form of pre-social media social media, and the ban left many without a way to communicate with their respective communities. Art director supreme Art Chantry created an instant poster for the cover of the paper, with a not-so-subtle message that urged readers to cut and paste it all over the city (which they did). It was even printed on heavier and whiter paper stock, to make the posting more effective. The issue was art directed by Seattle visual legend Dale Yarger, with help from Lisa Orth. And additional kudos to editor Emily White and publisher Tim Keck. Genius!

[hissytapes]

SIGN-O-TIMES

In 1997, I was paid roughly $300 for this cover story which ran in the Orlando Weekly. It was their going-rate — and pretty damn decent for an alt-weekly in any city at the time (much less Orlando).

25 years later, I'm again writing about Michael Donaldson (Q-Burns Abstract Message) for an upcoming issue. About the same 2,000-word length. Pay-rate in 2022? $50 (or 16.6% of what I was originally paid a quarter-century ago).

No complaints whatsoever, though. In fact, I'm quite-quite happy the Orlando Weekly is still publishing and even re-hired staff back after the sudden downsizing of 13 employees during the onset of COVID in March 2020.

Just another interesting — and thoroughly troubling — perspective on how far down journalism has been de-prioritized due to lack of online monetization. Sigh and ugh.

[photosbycharlieclark]

BEHIND THE SCENES

Behind the scenes at NUVO.

[theorwelling]

"My dad's been gone for almost twenty years now. I've come here for a long time. My husband's only been gone a couple. When I get up there, I’ll be bawling. But I like the deer. They help quite a bit. I think they're pretty cool. I know not everybody agrees with me, but it's like they're not alone." CHERYL ROY, PHOTOGRAPHED WHILE VISITING THE GRAVES OF HER PARENTS AND HUSBAND AT JEFFERSON BARRACKS NATIONAL CEMETERY ON VETERANS DAY, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 11. #riverfronttimes #thelede #documentaryphotographer #Jeffersonbarracksnationalcemetery #vetransday #midwestphotographer #altweekly (at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery) https://www.instagram.com/p/CWJdnz9J1ny/?utm_medium=tumblr

[summerpierre]

Marian Henley - a HUGE inspiration to me when I was in High School. #comics #marianhenley #maxine #cartoonovel #womenincomics #earlyinfluence #altweekly #austin #graphicnovel

[dinosossi]

COVID was supposed to be the “total annihilation” of alt-weeklies, but they continued to do backbreaking work, holding power structures accountable @thedailybeast @sophianjune @MarkZusman @wweek @tfnw @vincethepolack @cresmer @nickbarbaro @sxsw trib.al/gXowy25

[folkelorde]

* / GUIDE: CHARACTERS AT A NEWSPAPER.

hi, hello ! here’s just a guide for creating a character who works in a newsroom/for a newspaper. most of this is drawn from personal experience (+ my parents’ experiences) but i did some googling on your behalf as well. this guide isn’t just because i wanna see more accuracy, but also because there’s a lot of things about this environment that would be fun to write that i don’t really see being taken advantage of. so, check out under the cut for all my tips.

note: if you have any questions about your journalist or journalist-adjacent muse, i’m happy to try and help answer ! let me know if you have more questions this guide doesn’t cover, i just went to the points that might be most helpful for your muse plot-wise.

1. WHERE IS THE NEWSPAPER LOCATED/WHAT KIND IS IT? this makes a huge difference. 

the environment in a small town paper is going to be a lot more lowkey and casual than a larger city paper. 

most large papers are now all owned by big companies so really unless they’re the nytimes, they’re suffering because of constant budget cuts, layoffs, etc, that affect their ability to report the stories that the people in their area care about. they’re generally just pulling from AP articles. small town papers these days are mainly weekly or biweekly. 

another thing that has become really popular (at least in the US) are altweeklies. there’s probably one of these in your state, and they generally have a huge focus on narrative journalism, come out weekly, and almost have a magazine-like feel? most probably started out as arts publications but now do a lot of news coverage to make up for the lack of coverage in their area. these are generally independently owned. if you’re curious, there’s a whole list of them here. 

essentially, if you’ve got a larger, conventional paper, it’s probably consolidating and the workers are suffering. if you’re in a tiny small town paper, it’s probably chill and if there’s ever any kind of real news, it’s the story of the fucking year. and if you’re at an altweekly, you’re kind of in the middle and maybe new to reporting news, since you have to make up for what your big city paper isn’t doing.

2. WHAT DOES YOUR CHARACTER DO? there are more people at a newspaper than writers and photographers! in fact, a lot of newspapers don’t really have staff photographers any more, just an army of freelance ones that they call on. here are some ideas for positions that your character can have:

intern: if your character is a writer under 25, they’re probably an intern. internships sometimes blossom into full-time gigs, if the paper is doing well enough to hire someone new on. 

staff writer: if your character is under 30, they’re probably one of the youngest people, if not the youngest, especially if they work in news (arts sections might have a few more younger people, but i’ve never really met a reputable news writer that wasn’t 30+). writers DO NOT spend much time in the office at all and are often on the go, running around, working from home, whatever, and popping into the office for meetings and such. seriously, they’re never there. 

freelance writer: maybe your character writes niche things on the side for a publication, like movie reviews, a political column, book reviews, etc. i know a woman that’s really into opera and she wrote into our paper asking if she could write about that so whenever there’s an opera she writes about it and that’s it. generally the people who have a column (doing reviews of some kind especially) are freelance and don’t work for the paper full time. so if your character is like a “book reviewer,” maybe consider having them do something else too. tbh, they’re probably an author. 

editor: this depends SO MUCH on the size of the paper. at the paper where i work, there’s a news editor and an arts editor. however, a tiny paper probably just has one editor for everything, and a larger paper probably has an editor for each and every section. so consider the size when you consider your character’s role, and seriously, if your character is younger, they will NOT be in this position. managing editors don’t rly exist any more unless you’re like the nytimes or something. even then. 

data journalists/data editor: again depending on the size of your paper, there’s probably one or no people that do this. however, this is becoming a crucial part of most newsrooms – people that do data analytics, build charts, work with lots of spreadsheets. these people do a lot of great shit and have been the frontrunners on a lot of big stories as of late. also, whenever you’re reading something and it’s got charts and graphs, it’s probably a data person behind that. this is really crucial with politics and elections, but also with all of the incoming data about climate change. 

web people: even the smallest fucking newsroom probably has one person who’s doing all the website stuff. web is just as important as print these days, as you probably know, and the only people surviving without good websites are the tiny small town papers because that’s a really niche market. but even they have websites, even if they’re not too snazzy! 

designers: so important!! these are the people that are at the office ALL THE FUCKING TIME, mainly because they can’t really do their work from home and they’re working on deadline, not only with the writers/editors but with the sales department too. where i work, the designers are loud and crass and fun and they’re all super close friends because like i said, they’re there all the time and a lot of late nights working on the paper and on ads and stuff.  

photographers: like i said, they’re mostly freelance and they want to be. but maybe if they have a really good relationship with the paper and have been there a while, they might have a full-time gig. jonathan byers would not have a full time job in 2019. 

sales team: even at the smallest of papers, there’s a good chance the sales team is the biggest team on staff. this is how newspapers rake in money, unless they’re on a nonprofit model, and in that case they probably don’t really have a sales team because they’re entirely funded by the readers (it works like NPR). sales team is probably in and out of the office a lot because they’re making sales calls and full of some interesting characters, you know, like on the office lmao. because of their relationships with businesses, it’s not uncommon for them to be the first ones to hear about a story OR to be the ones bitched at when a story portrays someone unfavorably, especially if its someone who advertises w the paper. 

marketing/social media: nonexistent in a small town paper, but otherwise, this is becoming a more crucial part of newspapers. a lot of newspapers also put on community events, so there’s a lot of event planning and promotion involved here too. 

secretary: a good job for a younger muse, probably answering phones and the door and organizing the calendar and helping with the classifieds and all of that bullshit. this person has to be a real people person. they’re also probably at the office all the time. 

publisher: head honcho! they generally own the damn place and make the calls on all the big picture decisions. if they’re not the owner, they’re still CEO-adjacent, yk?

3. YOUR MUSE PROBABLY WORKS WEIRD HOURS. like almost definitely. the news cycle is 24 hours and even if your character isn’t reporting on breaking news, they’re operating around other people’s schedules to get the story or put it in place, AND, yes, they’re probably working around breaking news or dealing with a crisis. or, unexpectedly, a story can go viral and that affects everyone in the office too. so, sometimes your muse might go into work at 11am and stay until 8pm or they’ll get called in at random times or have to go. this can lead to conflicts with other muses who don’t quite understand, or affect relationships when there’s an important moment and your muse has to jet off for work. it’s nice to keep in mind that your muse probably doesn’t just work 9-5. your muse also likely works holidays and such too, and if they’re not working, they’ve got their phone on them. always gotta be plugged in. more conflict! 

4. LAYOFFS. it’s impossible to talk about the industry without it. here’s a story my coworker told me the other day: “i just started my job at [redacted large paper] and the company was going through layoffs. since i was the new guy right out of college, i thought i’d be the first to go. but i wasn’t. they kept me and started laying off all the old-timers, people who had been with the paper forever.”  – THIS IS A HUGE STRAT FOR THESE CORPORATE PAPERS. it’s actually cheaper for them to keep the newer workers and lay off the people who have accrued a lot of benefits and pto and are close to retirement and such. this could be an interesting angle for a younger muse who’s pushed into a position of a lot of responsibility that they weren’t prepared for, or a muse who was at a paper and is layed off and now works for a smalltown type of paper – could be a fun sort of muse to play in your typical “small town” rps – some bigwig talent that’s now struggling after being laid off. the big name to know is gannett, who owns a huge majority of papers in places big and small, but they’re now merging with gatehouse...which is leading to even more consolidation right now.

p.s. if you’re curious, my coworker was eventually laid off from said [redacted large paper] later on

5. THE BIG SCOOP. your muse probably isn’t constantly on the scoop of the century, even at a big paper. especially if your muse is younger, they’re probably not being given that responsibility. so, if part of your plot is that your muse is breaking a big story, they probably don’t do that sort of thing all the time and it’s a big deal to them! it’s also not unusual for a writer to be working on a story over a long, long period of time, especially if it’s a very big story, or for them to be covering it in bites (like a murder trial). 

6. JACK OF ALL TRADES? writers especially are sort of expected to have a lot more proficiencies than just writing. you gotta be able to shoot your own videos and pictures too, add your posts to the web, so on. there’s more to it than just ‘writing,’ as you probably know. keep that in mind, although your muse might not LIKE that they need to do all of these things. 

7. FOLLOWING THE LAW! you’ve got to let people know that you’re interrogating them for the news, that they’re on the record, all of that shit. it’s hugely unethical if you don’t, and you can’t just be publishing people’s photos without their permission. you see a lot of movies where journalists go undercover and don’t tell people that they’re interrogating them for the paper and that probably wouldn’t happen (gale weathers from the scream movies would’ve been sued so fast for all of her defamation). also, newspapers spend a LOT of time dealing with government bureaucracy. like you expect a records request to get answered within the legal time frame, but it never fucking does, and often times you’re waiting on the state or even suing them for not sending you the records but they don’t give a fuck, they’re the state. it can be a lot of jumping over hurdles and through hoops to get any kind of info from the government...especially from the police. so even if information is supposed to be public, sometimes it can be a challenge to get, and maybe something your muse can struggle with. if your muse is in a roleplay where government workers are also present, this could be a fun plot/conflict to play out. 

[narcbrain]

Back On The Screen, 'Between The Lines' Explores The Waning Days Of A Boston Alt-Weekly

Back On The Screen, ‘Between The Lines’ Explores The Waning Days Of A Boston Alt-Weekly

“We really shook things up, but we didn’t change anything,” sighs a prematurely world-weary journalist played by John Heard in director Joan Micklin Silver’s “Between the Lines.” This freewheeling ensemble comedy about the waning days of a Boston alt-weekly newspaper was first released in 1977 and has been out of circulation (at least legally) for years, becoming something of a local legend in…

[oldmandesign]

Friends don’t let friends drink green beer. Happy St Patty’s day. Have a safe drinking night er’one. Here’s an old illo for @vueweekly that I tweaked for the occasion. . . . #oldmandesign #vueweekly #yegarts #illustration #yeg #beer #vectorart #stpattysday #drinkresponsibly #luckoftheirish #yegdrinks #adobeillustrator #graphicdesign #altweekly #localyeg #stpatricksday #🍀 (at Vue Weekly)

[indieephemera]

Advertising insert from a late 1989 issue of alternative newspaper The Boston Phoenix, promoting the six-year anniversary of alternative rock radio station WFNX.

Real "Holy shit! We made it to another year!" energy with this supplement. Given the paper printed a big spread to celebrate their 5th anniversary the previous year, it’s a bit odd they’d choose to commemorate their 6th. Though this insert is a lot smaller, just a single piece of broadsheet printed on both sides.

Here WFNX is testing a new slogan: “Rock the Boat Radio.” Not sure why an alternative rock station decided to use a phrase that only serves to make me think of this classic soul jam. Buy hey, there is a long tradition of basic alt-rock stations appealing to the egos of their listeners by adopting a cooler-than-thou slogan.

Again we get mini-profiles of some of the DJs and station personnel. What surprised me in comparing this to the previous year’s insert was that some names that seemed almost synonymous with WFNX for me are missing. Juanita the Scene Queen hasn’t yet started hosting Boston Rocks? And DJ Bill Abbate is already gone? Plus ça change...

[newmanology]

Washington City Paper, March 20-26, 2020

[digboston-blog]

THE YEAR IN DIGBOSTON. Executive editor @jasonpramas looks back at DigBoston’s first year under new management... and thanks all the talented staffers that make it possible to put the alternative weekly newspaper out every damn week for your reading pleasure. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT DIGBOSTON.COM! #news #altweekly #media #Boston . . . #Repost @digstagramboston (@get_repost)

[photosbycharlieclark]

Behind the scenes

Recently moved spaces @nuvonewsweekly and wanted to showcase some behind the scenes with the creative team.

[sysbmore]

oh hey 👋 Thanks for all the support over the years @citypaper No really. Serious. We will truly miss our beloved #altweekly Thx for one last shoutout & we hope to see you all at #halloweenhangover tomorrow night. Au revoir (at Lithuanian Hall)

[frednoland]

Thanks to all who made it out for "Disappearing Ink". The show will be up for a couple weeks. PM me to schedule #illustration #DisappearingInk #AltWeekly