Alternative Weeklies have seen better days, but the two largest companies, New Times Media and Village Voice Media, will try to rescue what’s left and combine forces in a move that will give them entry into 16 key markets, and 25 percent of the country’s 7.6 million alternative weekly readers. A key rationale behind the merger is the chance to supercharge Backpage.com, the Craigs List-like, free classifieds service from New Times.
Village Voice Media brings six markets to the table, including New York, Los Angeles, Orange County, Seattle, Minneapolis/St. Paul and Nashville. New Times publishes in 11 markets, including Phoenix, Cleveland, Houston, San Francisco, Miami and Dallas.
If approved by The Department of Justice (DOJ), New Times gets 62 percent of the company and five of nine board seats. The combined company would have about $180 million in revenues, and according to The New York Times, a valuation of about $400 million. DOJ needs to approve the merger due to a 1992 Consent Decree after the two companies were found to be colluding.
Tellingly, online’s a key driver of the deal. Voice CEO David Schneiderman is slated to take charge of the company’s online operations, with a focus on backpage.com, New Times’ Craig’s list-like free classifieds service. The service may be rebranded as “The Village Voice” or some aspect of the title.
Schneiderman said in a statement that he was “excited about the prospect of leading the effort to build a robust and successful web platform for the new company. The Internet will be a critical part of our future and it is essential that we use the talent and resources of the combined company to become important players in that world. My immediate goal is to grow our online audience by utilizing our existing resources, and to break new ground in delivering fresh and compelling content to an ever-expanding audience in any way they wish to receive it.”
There is some irony in online’s importance. Online’s rise has largely spelled trouble for the alternative weekly business (along with the rise in copycat media, online and off). Unwilling, as a matter of culture, to invest heavily in editorial quality, or cut prices from the print editions, the alternatives have watched their audience dwindle and their cover price go to zero as online magazines have grown and online city guides have improved functionality. Craig’s List, especially, has knocked them flat with free classifieds. Many alternative weeklies are largely subsisting from sex-oriented advertising.
To a kultur meister, The Village Voice no longer “matters.” And The Voice, and similar alternative papers around the country, can hardly promise a lock on its traditional “alternative” readers, including college, college grad, gay and minority readers. Still, the alternative weeklies retain large readerships in key markets. Someone is surely picking up the 250,000 copies a week that The Voice puts out.
In my view, the New Times and Village Voice Media combo can still leverage print and online bundles, and drive readers to the online classifieds. They can also try to leverage national sales efforts by Ruxton Media, a subsidiary of New Times that is dedicated to reaching young urban audiences in a number of formats. Merging the companies is not a bad place to start. But between newspapers and alt weeklies, I’d rather work for a newspaper, if you catch my drift.
