• Podcast
  • Home
  • Better News
  • Contact Us

It's All Journalism

The broccoli of media-focused podcasts.

  • Podcast
  • Home
  • Better News
  • Contact Us

#270 — ‘Brutal’ times ahead for alt press

September 7, 2017 by Amber Healy

 

Alt weeklies and other publications have the same battles to fight as their bigger brothers and sisters: Finding enough advertising to keep the proverbial lights on.

Andrew Beaujon is senior editor at Washingtonian. (Photo by Evy Mages)

Andrew Beaujon is senior editor at Washingtonian. (Photo by Evy Mages)

Andrew Beaujon, a senior editor at the Washingtonian, sees the next few years as being “brutal” for alt publications. Following a panel discussion at the recent Association of Alternative Newsmedia’s annual conference, Beaujon asserts the closure of alt weeklies is “not a reflection on the quality of work they’re doing, it’s a reflection on the fact that they’re not making any money. You can’t keep offering people the same but less” when it comes to the local coverage readers have come to expect.

It’s a sad state of affairs, and a quick fact of more newsrooms, that one position is lost every year. He points to an alt publication in Knoxville, Tennessee, where some staffers of a publication that had just closed decided to go out on their own. “They found out advertisers has been advertising out of inertia,” Beaujon said. The advertisers “hadn’t noticed they were still advertising” with the publication and, once it was brought to their attention, they pulled their ads. The cost wasn’t worth the exposure.

Instead, alts need to find, and build on, their strengths and abilities that the bigger publications can’t offer.

The strength that some alt publications have found is the ability to do “mop-up stories,” he said. Alt papers aren’t quite under the same pressure to write breaking news events but have the benefit of being able to “go back, get the documents and meet the people (involved); tell a big story through a smaller story.” Larger, prominent publications don’t have that luxury because they have daily, if not hourly, deadlines to meet for both print and online outlets.

In his time at the Washingtonian and, before that, at the Washington City Paper, Beaujon said he’s come to appreciate the concept and practice of service journalism. “What we can do is really do the mop-up story, go back to the breaking news and find the connecting thread and find the stories people don’t have time to do when (something) happens. We do really good service journalism (at the Washingtonian), something I didn’t understand until I got here. Now I’m very proud of it because I’ve learned how hard it is to do it well and with integrity.”

Andrew Beaujon, a senior editor at the Washingtonian, joins producer Michael O’Connell to discuss the challenges shared by the alt press and their major publication brethren and how alts can use the lack of a daily deadline to write more in-depth stories after the dust settles on major news events. 

#266 —Democracy in Crisis: How alt newspapers cover national news

Share Button
If you like this post, please share it along:

Previous Post


#269 – In era of fake news, it’s time to promote news literacy

Next Post


#270 ‘Brutal’ times ahead for alt press

Related Posts

  • 458. How service journalism helps solve community problems
  • John Burn-Murdoch is a data journalist with the Financial Times in London.Data journalism leads top 10 podcasts for 2016
  • #316 — How much greater could your Facebook reach be?
  • Steve Buttry#94 – The New York Times is The New York Times … but

Learn How To Podcast

Turn Up the Volume equips journalism students, professionals, and others interested in producing audio content with the know-how necessary to launch a podcast for the first time. It addresses the unique challenges beginner podcasters face in producing professional level audio for online distribution. Beginners can learn how to handle the technical and conceptual challenges of launching, editing, and posting a podcast.

Order this new book by It’s All Journalism Producer Michael O’Connell.

Sign Up for Our Weekly Newsletter

Design

With an emphasis on typography, white space, and mobile-optimized design, your website will look absolutely breathtaking.

Learn more about design.

[footer_backtotop]

© 2022 Copyright by AllJournalismPod LLC 2012-2021 All rights reserved.·Pintercast Child Theme · Genesis Framework by StudioPress · WordPress · Log in