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
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.
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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