Alternative Weekly Network

03/10/2025

AWN has enjoyed a long and fascinating journey with the alternative publication industry, but we have reached the end of the line and have decided it’s time to close after a 30+ year run. As for myself, and likely my remaining teammates John Morrison and Sheila Malone, personal retirement has finally arrived.

As of March 1, we’ve exited with a plan in place to assure representation on behalf of any AWN publications for any non-local advertising that may still present itself in the future. We are transitioning our roster of alt media publications to long-time alternative weekly ad sales agency Ruxton Media Group, who like us, works closely with advertising and media agencies. Your media contact is Diana Hollis, [email protected]

Our association with alternative weeklies has been a tremendous pleasure. The community of independently minded local publications provided the inspiration and satisfaction for us to continue, even as our business model shrunk along with the newspaper print industry. Thanks for all the thrills and spills along the way.

Mark Hanzlik, AWN Executive Director

02/25/2025

We saw this news last week in Newcity and also in Union-Tribune. Another sign of the times for Alt Weeklies and printed newspapers.

The San Diego Reader, an alt weekly founded in 1972, published its last print edition on Thursday and remains an online-only publication.

08/16/2024

Terry Garrett brought this article to our attention, and was this right on target.

The city has become a hothouse for experimentation in local news. Could it serve as a model for the rest of the country?

12/04/2023

Here's the AWN crew in late 2023, still alive and kicking.

06/04/2023

This where I was in 1995 on this date. The Nashville Scene served as welcome host of one of the best AAN Conventions.
Mark

02/18/2023

A lengthy piece in The New Yorker last week about the transformation of Austin, Texas with some references to the culture and audience that allowed progressive publications like the Austin Chronicle and others to flourish for many years. When asked how Austin has changed, Chronicle Editor Louis Black finished by saying "... and we made it a wonderful place that everybody came to, which then wrecked the core idea."

My town, once celebrated for its laid-back weirdness, is now a turbocharged tech megalopolis being shaped by exiles from places like Silicon Valley.

09/06/2022

It's nice to have "alternative papers" to be called out from time-to-time in the NY Times.

“There’s such profound amnesia about what kids are actually doing,” Lynda Barry says.

11/19/2021

Here's a documentary that examines the plight of rural journalists through the story of an award-winning, family run local newspaper in Storm Lake, Iowa. It's not unlike many of alt media publications in AWN today. Check it out on PBS-Independent Lens.

Inside a family-run newspaper keeping local journalism alive.

09/10/2021

We moved out of our office home for the past 11+ years today. Thank you News & Review for inviting us to share space in your building and work closely together in this business for so long.

04/15/2020

from my longtime friend who is no longer publishing weekly newspapers but has not lost an interest in providing an outlet for telling it like it is. Thank you David Comden

President Trump has been unlike any POTUS before, especially when it comes to self promotion. He took that to yet another level yesterday during the daily White House COVID19 press briefing when h…