My region’s local independent newspaper, the IndyWeek, announced in May 2023 that it was being managed by a new partner, the Assembly, with the goal of it eventually being acquired by the Assembly. Given the bleak state of newspapers and their continuous contraction across the US, I did not welcome this announcement.
I grew up being a fan of alternative independent weekly newspapers. We had two in Pittsburgh, the “In Pittsburgh” and the “Pittsburgh City Paper”. We also had the “Pitt News”, the University of Pittsburgh’s student paper. These 3 publications were all on my weekly reading list for many years.
Before craigslist, google reviews and online forums became standards, the alternative papers was where I would find out about funky restaurants to visit, vacation condos to rent, cool times for sale and most importantly, in depth articles about the local community, government, people and politics.
Whenever we relocated to a different city, I’d seek out the local alternative paper to get my bearings and find the hidden gems, the inside stories and news that were rarely mentioned in the mainstream paper.
When I returned to Raleigh in 2019, I was pleasantly surprised to find that IndyWeek was still going strong covering local government, events, food and community news. During the 3 year covid pandemic, it was a lifesaver of sorts – connecting me with my new hometown.
Under the new management, I’ve seen a noticeable decline. There are fewer articles. Updates happen less often. There used to be new content every week. Now, I see the same articles for multiple weeks.
That’s a bummer.
It’s not unexpected. I’ve watched several of my old alternative weeklies move to online, contract and shutdown. They are struggling with the same financial pressure of traditional newspapers. I’d imagine, they are stretched even thinner trying to eek out a profit.
Nothing lasts forever.
This is one of those things that I will miss.