PS: gimme a call if you need a line on some used file cabinets ;-)
Posted on 09/21/2003 4:12:17 PM PDT by Chad Fairbanks
I dunno about that. I guess it depends on who you expect to reach with the paper. I notice that whenever I'm in a coffeeshop, the free papers are always left-of-center, if not outright goofy. But the successful ones - Seattle Weekly & The Stranger - have much more content than just the strident columns & articles.
I see the reviews, ads, concert listings, non-political articles, etc., as "intellectual loss-leaders". They get the average reader to read the paper, and hopefully come to rely on it over time. How many people would seek out a purely "eat your peas" style conservative paper? Besides you & me, I mean? :-)
Also, as I understand it, by far the biggest moneymakers for these papers are the Personal ads. Now, the seXXXy ads would be completely inappropriate for this paper, but still, I gotta wonder where the ad revenue would come from for a publication of strictly political articles. Check out National Review, Reason, The Nation, etc. & see the miniscule space that's given over to ads, and you begin to understand why these kinds of publications are always subsidized by a nonprofit organization that solicits donations.
I'd like to see a newsmagazine have articles on the arts, on sports, on business - lots of things that aren't strictly political or philosophical, and yet would be written by people with a conservative (or ideally for me, Objectivist) point of view. They wouldn't critique the latest art museum show or movie release on how well it conforms to conservative principles, necessarily, but the writer's conservatism would certainly show through over time.
Also: What demographic do the Weekly & the Stranger target? I'd say it's twentysomething liberal-arts college educated gen X'ers & boomers. For a conservative paper I think I'd target younger working people & entrepreneurs. Perhaps a slightly older demographic, but maybe not. But people who actually have dreams of making it in the capitalist world. So for a start, I'd like to see more articles on business. Even articles focusing on specific businesses, or specific careers. There are lots of businesses, market niches, and careers that I've idly wondered about. There was an article recently about people who rent out industrial kitchen space for food entrepreneurs. Fascinating stuff! I had practically no idea such space was available, let alone get a ballpark understanding of how much it would cost to make my gourmet salsa, blackberry jammy, apple jammy, or (your homemade food here) & sell it.
Anyway, I wouldn't dismiss non-political stories out of hand as "fluff". Unless you want to strictly target the publication to policy wonks or wonk-wannabees.
Alan: Hello children!
Jackie: Hello!
Man: Hello!
Alan: Well, last week we showed you how to be a gynaecologist, and this week on "How to do it", we're gonna learn how to play the flute, how to split the atom, how to construct box-girder bridges...
Jackie: Super!
Alan: ...and how to irrigate the Sahara and make vast new areas cultivatable, but first here's Jackie to tell you how to rid the world of all known diseases.
Jackie: Hello Alan!
Alan: Hello Jackie!
Jackie: Well first of all, become a doctor and discover a marvellous cure for something and then, when the medical world really starts to take notice of you, you can jolly well tell them what to do and make sure they get everything right, so that there'll never be diseases anymore.
Alan: Thanks Jackie, that was great!
Man: Fantastic!
Alan: Now, how to play the flute. Well, you blow in one end and move your fingers up and down the outside.
Man: Great Alan! Well, next week we'll be showing you how black and white people can live together in peace and harmony and Alan will be over in Moscow showing you how to reconcile the Russians and the Chinese. Till then, cheerio!
Alan: Bye!
Jackie: Bye bye!
Man: Bye!
His publication, New York Press, was started somewhere around 1988. It was a libertarian/conservative/with lots of interesting stuff-thrown-in-alternative Manhattan weekly that survives to this day. I've read the greater part of their issues since I discovered it in 1989.
A couple of years ago, he had an excellent right wing writer named Taki; some rich conservative Greek-American, or something. It was really great to read truly alternative articles in Manhattan.
There's a market out there! Good luck!
Let's see if this link will work: New York Press.
He sold it this year, but he still writes most every week, Mugger, that is, but apparently not this one. Keep the link, though, because this guy did exactly what you want to do now. He made his million or so, probably, and has now moved to Baltimore. And he supports Bush!
I read the regular collumns, such as Cecil Adams' "The Straight Dope", which deals with scientific and historical questions, "The Howie Chronicals", which was a very interesting weekly column written by a family man from New Jersey who detailed his weelky visits to a psychiatrist, "Slackjaw", written by Jim Knifel, who has an interesting book by the same name, which I recently ran across in my local public library.
He's a nearly blind guy from Greenbay, Wisconsin who won't accept any state aid, it seems, and who is a fantastic writer. There have been many others along the way.
New York Press was a really fun and interesting read for many years.
PS: gimme a call if you need a line on some used file cabinets ;-)
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