So has the industry. Florida's so-called alternative newsweeklies -- irreverent giveaway tabloids with plenty of sass and no sacred cows -- have emerged as a force in newspaper publishing. While such papers abound in Florida, five meet the rigorous editorial standards of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (AAN): Miami New Times, New Times Broward-Palm Beach, Orlando Weekly, the Weekly Planet (Tampa) and Folio Weekly (Jacksonville). Within their respective markets each now ranks second in readership among all publications, trailing only the regions' daily newspapers.
The newsweeklies are riding a nationwide trend. Since 1992, revenues of the combined AAN members have jumped from $174 million to $450 million. Since 1990, their combined circulation has risen 150% to about 7.4 million. Meanwhile, overall mainstream daily newspaper circulation has declined about 10%. "It's no secret the dailies are struggling," says Orlando Weekly publisher Alisa Cromer, whose paper's circulation is growing by about 10% annually. "Dailies have always been journals of record -- simply reporting the news of the day, which radio and television also do."
The alternative press tries to set itself apart with both substance and style. Local arts and entertainment scenes receive substantial coverage. News stories are provocative and thorough, often written with brashness, wit and conviction. Miami New Times' cover stories often exceed 5,000 words. News stories in daily newspapers rarely exceed 500. "That kind of length gives us the ability to craft a story -- tell a narrative -- while also establishing a context for the events we're reporting," explains Miami New Times' longtime editor, Jim Mullin.
Above all, says AAN executive director Richard Karpel, alternative newsweeklies are succeeding because they keep a local focus, probing a community's most revered and insulated public figures and institutions, including elected officials and the local daily newspaper.
Folio Weekly, for example, raised eyebrows for exposing the backroom deal-making that led to a new stadium for the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars; the Weekly Planet published a series of articles revealing shoddy reporting at the Tampa Tribune in its controversial exposé linking a University of South Florida Muslim group to a terrorist organization in the Middle East. For the AAN, says Karpel, local coverage is the most important consideration in deciding whether to accept a paper as a member of the association; each year the organization rejects more than half of all applicants, mostly for too-scant local news coverage.
An attractive buy
The newsweeklies have found an eager audience among younger, more affluent readers --those coveted by advertisers -- helping some papers match the 15%-20% operating profits generated by big, chain-owned dailies. Nationwide, 75% of the weeklies' readers are between 18 and 49 years old. The reader base is heavy with baby boomers and GenXers, who remain maddeningly elusive to the mainstream dailies. More than 80% attended college; average household income is close to $47,000.
Advertisers -- typically, music stores, tattoo parlors, nightclubs and other small businesses seeking the disposable income of image conscious 20-somethings -- are finding an attractive buy. A one-time full-page ad in New Times costs $3,600, compared to $20,115 for a full page in the A section of the Miami Herald. The newsweeklies have also been successful at attracting national advertisers: A recent issue of New Times included full-page ads for Volkswagen, Marlboro, AT&T and American Airlines.
About 10% of New Times' ad revenue comes from national ads sold through a national sales network of newsweeklies that allows advertisers to place ads simultaneously in cities around the country. The newsweeklies also generate substantial revenues from classified ads (about 20% of total revenues at New Times) and from personal ads (about 5%).
While the industry is rooted in the counterculture radicalism of the '60s, it has blossomed into big business. Florida's two New Times publications -- in Miami and Broward-Palm Beach -- are part of an 11-paper chain based in Phoenix, which exports its finely tuned product to carefully targeted cities. While the two papers are editorially autonomous and committed to pursuing hard-hitting stories, they wouldn't be around without the parent company's deep pockets.
Miami New Times, while firmly in the black, lost money its first three years. Weekly Planet published for five years, during which it lost about $1 million, before it earned any money. "You certainly need staying power," says Weekly Planet founder and President Ben Eason, whose family owns the Creative Loafing chain of alternative newsweeklies.
Daily newspapers have taken notice of the upstarts' success. Last October, Knight Ridder's Miami Herald debuted Street, a funky arts and entertainment tabloid with plenty of four-letter words and the same sort of urban verve that defines Miami New Times. The Tribune Co.'s Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel has produced its own alternative look-alike, City Link, for several years. Both charge lower ad rates than the dailies that own them.
The newspaper industry calls such papers "faux" publications, which AAN's Karpel disparages for copying the style of the alternative newsweeklies but not the substance. "These faux papers have it all backwards," he insists. They say 'what a great demographic, let's go after it by writing in a hip style and using profanity.' "
Publishers of the alternative newsweeklies insist that despite their success, they haven't sold out to the bean counters. "We're here to find and report the stories that the dailies can't cover or won't cover," says Folio Weekly founder and publisher Sam Taylor. "That's what our business is, and we can't ever lose focus of that."