3rd | Top alternative weekly newspapers |
Type | Alternative weekly |
---|---|
Format | Tabloid |
Owner | Village Voice Media |
Publisher | Beth Sestanovich |
Editor | Drex Heikes |
Founded | 1978 |
Headquarters | 3861 Sepulveda Blvd Culver City, CA 90230 ![]() |
Circulation | 193,714[1] |
Official website | laweekly.com |
LA Weekly is a free weekly tabloid-sized newspaper (a so-called "alternative weekly") in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Editor/Publisher Jay Levin and a board of directors that included actor-producer Michael Douglas. It is currently owned by Village Voice Media (formerly New Times Media), the parent company of other major weeklies such as the New York City's Village Voice, Houston's Houston Press, San Francisco's SF Weekly, and the OC Weekly of Orange County, California. It is distributed every Thursday.
According to their website, "LA Weekly has been the premier source for award-winning coverage of Los Angeles music, arts, film, theater, culture, concerts, [and] events." The LA Weekly also recognizes outstanding small theatre productions (99 seats or less) in Los Angeles, with their annual LA Weekly Theater Awards, established in 1979.[2] Starting in 2006, LA Weekly has hosted the LA Weekly Detour Music Festival every October. The entire block surrounding Los Angeles City Hall is closed off to accommodate the festival's three stages.[3]
Some of its most famous writers are Pulitzer Prize-winning food writer Jonathan Gold. Nikki Finke, who until recently blogged about the film industry through the Weekly's Website, left in June 2009 after signing a business deal with an online firm.[4]
Although some former employees have complained about personnel moves since the Weekly's parent company's acquisition by New Times Media (which assumed the Village Voice Media name) [5], the paper has won a Pulitzer Prize, [6] and broke the story of the "Grim Sleeper" serial killer [7]. Some former employees have complained that the New Times replaced news editor Alan Mittelstaedt with Harold Meyerson, once the Weekly's political editor, charged in a departing email to Weekly staffers in 2006 that the new owners had grafted a cookie-cutter template for editorial content onto the publication.[8]
Writers once closely associated with the Weekly but let go by the paper's current management include Meyerson,[9] classical music critic Alan Rich,[10] theater critic Steven Leigh Morris,[11] film critic Ella Taylor,[12] and columnist Marc Cooper.[13] Internal cut backs have resulted in the paper eliminating the position of managing editor, letting go several staff writers and other editorial department positions, as well as cutting the entire fact checking department.[14] On June 1, 2009, the paper announced that Editor-in-Chief Laurie Ochoa, who began helming the paper in 2001 (before the New Times acquisition), was "parting ways" with the Weekly.[15] On that same day, ads for her replacement appeared on Craig's List and Journalismjobs.com. Though some speculated that Stewart was a shoo-in for the position[16], the job quickly went to Drex Heikes, formerly of the Los Angeles Times.
Weekly management have said staff cuts are necessary due to poor economic conditions.[17] However, some of the cuts are likely attributable to philosophical differences with the paper's current owners.[18] Former staff writer Matthew Fleischer says that "as part of the company’s 'plug-and-play' management strategy, editors, writers and ad directors were moved from city to city within the chain, without regard for local knowledge. Any old-school Village Voice Media manager who resisted the metamorphosis was denounced as a 'lefty,' a 'throwback,' and worse. They were fired or simply fled."[19]
In the Los Angeles market, LA Weekly competes against Brand X (a weekly newspaper published by the daily newspaper the Los Angeles Times and is produced by a crew that includes former LA Weekly staffers) and formerly LA CityBeat, a smaller alternative weekly newspaper owned by Southland Publishing, which ceased publication in March 2009, and also owns the Pasadena Weekly (helmed by veteran LA-area newsman Kevin Uhrich).
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