Posted on 09/21/2003 4:12:17 PM PDT by Chad Fairbanks
How To Start An Independent Newspaper
First off, let me be blunt: The last time I was involved in anything like this, was during the 1980s when I helped create and distribute a ‘newsletter’ – a cheap little ‘paper’ printed by a friend at a local print shop in the middle of the night, and distributed by hand in school during the day.
As such, I am posting this article from a perspective having a distinct lack of experience, in order to spark discussions, to learn from others more experienced than I, and to hopefully spark some creative ideas, solutions, and information from other FReepers.
So, without further ado, allow me to lay out some ideas, concepts, and such in order to begin the discussion.
What is an Alternative newspaper?
An Alternative Newspaper is a newspaper that provides news, opinions, or information that one would usually not find in the many mainstream daily newspapers which are published in cities and towns across the country. The term ‘Alternative’, is a word in modern parlance that is now devoid of any true meaning. What was once considered ‘alternative’ is now part of the mainstream culture. For our purposes, the word ‘alternative’ means something that is different than the mainstream liberal publications, as it pertains to print media.
Why would I want to start one?
Have you ever been at a bus top, subway station, or a music store, and seen free, independent ‘alternative’ newspapers sitting in racks? Have you ever noticed how often they are left-wing publications? Other than being more extreme, they are often not all that different from the mainstream newspapers. Wouldn’t you like to see one that espouses a conservative viewpoint for a change? Well, that’s not going to happen by itself. Someone needs to step up to the plate and get involved.
You may love to write, or perhaps you want an outlet for other creative ideas, such as cartooning. Perhaps you are tired of the local mainstream daily newspaper ignoring stories of local importance, or covering it with an obvious bias?
The simple answer is simply, “Why not?”
What should I do first?
Plan, plan, and plan some more. Creating, publishing, and distributing a newspaper is not any easy job. You must create a plan that will help you determine your goals, what you hope to accomplish, and how you are going to achieve what you set out to do. Much like a Business Plan – not only will this plan help to keep you on track, it may also help to secure funding.
Find a group of like-minded people in your area to help you. As you begin to plan, determine what skills they have, in order to determine what their responsibilities and duties will be. Each person will bring unique abilities to the table, and you must find a way to tap into those strengths.
What will your paper be called? What will its focus be? How often will you publish? How will you fund the publishing and distribution? How will you distribute it?
All these question, and many more, will need to be answered in your plan.
How will I pay for it?
Without a secure reliable source of revenue, you will never get your paper off the ground. The best plan in the world will not help you, if you are unable to implement it. So, how would you go about securing the funding necessary to launch your newspaper? There are many ways, and how you go about it may be different than how others do. You may choose to raise money through bake sales, or by approaching small businesses in your area to run ads. You may secure grants through sympathetic foundations or organizations, through donations from private individuals, or by paid subscriptions from readers.
How you intend to fund the venture should be a major part of your plan.
How will I publish my newspaper?
How you choose to print and publish your newspaper is important. Anyone can run to Kinko’s and run off 100 copies of a piece of paper. Actually publishing a newspaper, on the other hand, requires a little more work and planning.
One option is to approach a small local newspaper, and pay for a printing job. Many small newspapers perform third-party printing work in order to make extra money. You will be required, usually, to provide a camera-ready work for them to print. There are some software packages that can assist you in preparing a camera-ready work. An example would be Quark XPress, which can provide camera-ready artwork in PDF format.
How you prepare your newspaper copy will be determined by your printer. Many will have specific requirements, and when choosing a printer it is important to determine what their requirements are and whether you are able to meet those requirements.
How will I distribute my newspaper?
The manner in which you distribute your newspaper will again vary, depending on your needs, circumstances, and locality. You may be able to negotiate a deal by becoming an insert within another published paper. Another option would be to pay for placement through a company in your area that provides this type of service. The next time you are in a supermarket, or at a bus stop and you see the newspaper racks, check it out and find the information about the company that provides the racks and the space. Contact them and find out about placement for your paper.
Another option would be mail-order, home delivery, or you and some friends could hand them out to passers-by at a local shopping center.
When distributing, be creative. The more you distribute, the more people you will reach with your message.
A word of warning: Liberals, being intolerant as they are, have been know to steal and destroy as many copies of conservative papers as they can get their hands on. Depending on your area, you may need to take this type of activity into account. Secondly, they have also been known to slip inserts into other newspapers. Again, this may be something you need to watch for.
What are the legal issues involved?
This is a good question – one that I have relatively few answers for. The obvious one, which revolve around Libel, is something that I hope any lawyers here can answer. Other issues may include incorporating, LLCs, etc. which vary from locale to locale.
Give me five people, including myself, and I could give you a very nice, 20-24 page monthly newspaper. One person for the billing, business end, etc. One editor/production manager/delivery person; an editorial assistant; and two salespeople. Most writers would be on a free-lance basis. Don't need an office or a warehouse. We'll print up 15,000 copies to start.
I personally could do the first 7 things you listed above. Not that I'd want to.
Cheaper and easier to produce and probably would reach more folks.
Is there any such paper? Does anyone know where I could find something like that? The availablity of these left wing trashy papers influences many many minds---especially those who are just waiting to be influenced.
That's the problem GW. Sounds like half the folk on here are old experienced newspaper people. The problem is, we all know how much work this is, and when the time comes, none of will want to take it on. Whoever takes this on had better have a pretty big whip.
Please don't take this as a criticism of you, because it's not intended that way, but I just want to say that what you wrote above is a common problem in any topic or project, not just this one :0(
I was editor of the Washington Libertarian for a few issues back in 1993. I took it from an 8 1/2x11 format to 8-page tabloid, where it stayed for about a year IIRC (a few months after I stepped down). I thought of it as the closest thing the Washington LP had to "mass media exposure". I had visions of turning it into an independent news-monthly, similar to what you're describing.
I think the biggest limiting factor for a project like this is in getting your employees/collaborators to consistently carry out their commitments. Delegating responsibility is the secret to making something like this work - and yet it's the achilles heel as well.
So - that pretty much rules out a volunteer organization. You must raise enough seed capital to be able to hire the core group of essential personnel as bona-fide, paid employees. Even if the pay isn't much, ideally these people would be relying on their paychecks from this company. It's a weird psychological block that people have, IMO, but if they're volunteers who made a verbal commitment to perform an ongoing job, it always ends up at the bottom of their personal priorities when crunch time comes. (If not in the first month, then after the initial excitement has died down.)
If you structure it as a corporation, maybe enough Freepers from around the country would buy into it to fund a well-capitalized operation. Especially if it helps spawn other similar ventures in other parts of the country.
: ) Psst. I don't think Chad likes it. He said he did, but I think he was just being polite - kind of a little pat on the head.
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