Alternative Newspaper - Chains and Mergers

Chains and Mergers

Some alternative newspapers are independent. However, due in part to increasing concentration of media ownership, many have been bought or launched by larger media conglomerates. The Tribune Company, a multi-billion dollar company that owns the Chicago Tribune, owns four New England alternative weeklies, including the Hartford Advocate and New Haven Advocate.

Creative Loafing, originally only an Atlanta-based alternative weekly, grew into Creative Loafing, Inc. which owns papers in three other southern U.S. cities, as well as the Chicago Reader and Washington City Paper.

Village Voice Media and New Times Media merged in 2006; before that, they were the two largest chains.

The pre-merger Village Voice Media, an outgrowth of New York City’s Village Voice, included LA Weekly, OC Weekly, Seattle Weekly, Minneapolis City Pages, and Nashville Scene.

New Times Media included at the time of the merger Cleveland Scene, Dallas Observer, Westword, East Bay Express, New Times Broward-Palm Beach, Houston Press, The Pitch, Miami New Times, Phoenix New Times, SF Weekly, and Riverfront Times.

In 2003, the two companies entered into a non-competition agreement which stated that the two would not publish in the same market. Because of this, New Times Media eliminated New Times LA, a competitor to Village Voice Media's LA Weekly, and Village Voice Media ceased publishing Cleveland Free Times, a competitor to New Times Media's Cleveland Scene. The US Justice Department launched an antitrust investigation into the agreement. The case was settled out of court with the two companies agreeing to make available the publishing assets and titles of their defunct papers to potential competitors. The Cleveland Free Times recommenced publication in 2003 under the publication group Kildysart LLC.

On October 24, 2005, New Times Media announced a deal to acquire Village Voice Media, creating a chain of 17 free weekly newspapers around the country with a combined circulation of 1.8 million and controlling a quarter of the weekly circulation of alternative weekly newspapers in North America . The deal was approved by the Justice Department and, on January 31, 2006, the companies merged into one, taking the name Village Voice Media.

Phoenix Media/Communications Group, owner of the popular Boston alternative weekly the Boston Phoenix, expanded to Providence, Rhode Island in 1988 with their purchase of NewPaper, which was renamed the Providence Phoenix. In 1999, PM/CG expanded further through New England to Portland, Maine with the creation of the Portland Phoenix. From 1992 through 2005, PM/GC owned and operated the Worcester Phoenix in Worcester, Massachusetts, but PM/GC folded that branch because of Worcester's dwindling art scene.

Nonetheless, a number of owner-operated, non-chain owned alternative papers survive, among them Columbia City Paper in Columbia, South Carolina, Metro Silicon Valley in San Jose, Pittsburgh City Paper in Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City Weekly, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, the San Diego Reader, Isthmus in Madison, Wisconsin, the Boulder Weekly, "The Second Supper" in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Willamette Week in Portland, Oregon, Independent Weekly in North Carolina's Triangle region, Yes! Weekly in North Carolina's Piedmont Triad, the Austin Chronicle in Texas, Artvoice in Buffalo, New York, the Aquarian Weekly in North Jersey, the Colorado Springs Independent, and Knoxville Voice in Knoxville, Tennessee. Canadian examples of owner-operated, non-chain owned alternative papers include Vancouver's The Georgia Straight, Toronto's NOW Magazine, Edmonton's Vue Weekly and Halifax's The Coast. Examples outside of the United States include Barcelona's BCN Mes.