Jackson Free Press

Richard Karpel, our friend and the director of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, has written an amusing but pointed piece about what an "alternative weekly" is, and is not. He ends:

At this point in our history, we are not interested in defending our use of the term "alternative." As I have explained to many reporters who have asked me accusingly, "So what makes your papers alternative, anyway?": In the 70s, when alternative newspapers first began appearing in large numbers in urban areas across the U.S. and Canada, we really did represent an alternative to the two daily papers, three television networks and handful of magazines that most North Americans were forced to turn to for news prior to the advent of cable TV and the internet. Now, with the explosion in media choices wrought by technology, we are just one of many alternative news sources. We recognize that and don't mean to imply we are the only media option outside of the mainstream. But after more than three decades of dropping the F-bomb in print and sticking it to the man, we've built up a certain amount of brand equity in the term "alternative newspaper," and we'd rather not share it with the likes of Leland Lehrman, thank you.

This is a fun piece. Take a read.

BTW, per Richard, the characteristics of a real alternative newspaper are:

*Free-circulation tabloid
*General interest coverage primarily focused on local news, culture and the arts
*Extensive entertainment listings
*Informal and sometimes profane writing style
*Emphasis on point-of-view reporting and narrative journalism
*Reporting that often concerns issues and communities that don't receive much attention from other media
*Political philosophy and organizational culture based on tolerance for individual freedoms and social differences