Baltimore City Paper

Last updated
City Paper
Baltimore City Paper June 23 2010.jpg
June 23, 2010 cover of the City Paper
Type Alternative weekly
Format Tabloid
Owner(s) Baltimore Sun Media Group
(Tribune Publishing)
PublisherTrif Alatzas
EditorBrandon Soderberg
Founded1977
Ceased publication2017
Headquarters501 North Calvert Street
Baltimore, MD 21278
United States
Circulation 52,000 (May 2016) [1]
ISSN 0740-3410
Website citypaper.com

Baltimore City Paper was a free alternative weekly newspaper published in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, founded in 1977 by Russ Smith and Alan Hirsch. The most recent owner was the Baltimore Sun Media Group, which purchased the paper in 2014 from Times-Shamrock Communications, which had owned the newspaper since 1987. It was distributed on Wednesdays in distinctive yellow boxes found throughout the Baltimore area. The paper folded in 2017, due to the collapse of advertising revenue income to print media. [2] The Media Group's closure announcement happened at the same meeting immediately after recognizing City Paper staff joining the Washington-Baltimore News Guild. [3]

Contents

History

Russ Smith and Alan Hirsch started the Baltimore City Paper in May 1977 while students at Johns Hopkins University. It was originally named the City Squeeze, and Smith and Hirsch published it using the offices of the Johns Hopkins student newspaper. In 1978, they took the paper out of the university and started publishing it as the Baltimore City Paper. Smith said that he viewed the paper as an alternative weekly similar to the Chicago Reader and the Boston Real Paper. The paper was free, except for a time between 1979 and 1981, where they charged 25¢ per issue. Charging a fee turned out to be mistake, as most of the paper's income came through advertising revenue and the fee led to a precipitous drop in circulation, and consequently advertising revenues. [4]

It was best known for providing information on clubs, concerts, theater, and restaurants, but each issue also has one major article on a subject not usually being carried by the mainstream media. In each issue there are also several political and advice columns and numerous cartoons including the weekly comic Dirtfarm by Ben Claassen III.

The last issue was released on November 1, 2017. [5] The Baltimore Beat started after. [6] [7]

Notable stories

The City Paper broke several important stories[ which? ] in the Baltimore area, including a plagiarism scandal involving longtime Baltimore Sun columnist Michael Olesker.[ citation needed ] It also presented the Best of Baltimore awards every year, in which various local businesses, attractions, and aspects of Baltimore, Maryland were highlighted.[ citation needed ]

In the summer of 2013, Times-Shamrock Communications announced its intention to sell off all of its alternative newspapers outside Pennsylvania, including the City Paper. In February 2014, the Baltimore Sun Media Group announced it had reached an agreement to purchase the Baltimore City Paper, with the sale to close in March 2014. [8]

Notable writers

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tabloid (newspaper format)</span> Type of newspaper

A tabloid is a newspaper with a compact page size smaller than broadsheet. There is no standard size for this newspaper format.

The New York Sun is an American online newspaper published in Manhattan; from 2002 to 2008 it was a daily newspaper distributed in New York City. It debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of the earlier New York paper, The Sun (1833–1950). It became the first general-interest broadsheet newspaper to be started in New York City in several decades. Its op-ed page became a prominent platform in the country for conservative viewpoints. From 2009 to 2021 The Sun operated as an online-only publisher of political and economic opinion pieces, as well as occasional arts content. Following acquisition from Dovid Efune in November 2021, The New York Sun has returned to full-time online publication since 2022.

The Georgia Straight is a free Canadian weekly news and entertainment newspaper published in Vancouver, British Columbia, by Overstory Media Group. Often known simply as The Straight, it is delivered to newsboxes, post-secondary schools, public libraries and a large variety of other locations.

<i>Houston Press</i> Online newspaper in Houston, Texas, US

The Houston Press is an online newspaper published in Houston, Texas, United States. It is headquartered in the Midtown area. It was also a weekly print newspaper until November 2017.

<i>The Phoenix</i> (newspaper) Former American alternative weekly periodical

The Phoenix was the name of several alternative weekly periodicals published in the United States of America by Phoenix Media/Communications Group of Boston, Massachusetts, including the Portland Phoenix and the now-defunct Boston Phoenix, Providence Phoenix and Worcester Phoenix. These publications emphasized local arts and entertainment coverage as well as lifestyle and political coverage. The Portland Phoenix, although it is still publishing, is now owned by another company, New Portland Publishing.

<i>Dayton Daily News</i> Newspaper in Dayton, Ohio

The Dayton Daily News (DDN) is a daily newspaper published in Dayton, Ohio. It is owned by Cox Enterprises, Inc., a privately held global conglomerate headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, with approximately 55,000 employees and $21 billion in total revenue. Its major operating subsidiaries are Cox Communications, Cox Automotive, and Ohio Newspapers.

<i>The Sun</i> (Malaysia) Free tabloid newspaper from Malaysia

The Sun is Malaysia's first national free daily newspaper in tabloid form. Available from Mondays to Fridays except on public holiday, with a target audience of white-collar workers and urban youth.

<i>Salt Lake City Weekly</i> Newspaper in Utah, United States

Salt Lake City Weekly is a free alternative weekly tabloid-paged newspaper published in Salt Lake City, Utah. It began as Private Eye. City Weekly is published and dated for every Thursday by Copperfield Publishing Inc. of which John Saltas is majority owner and president.

<i>Chicago Reader</i> Alternative weekly newspaper in Chicago

The Chicago Reader, or Reader, is an American alternative weekly newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. It was founded by a group of friends from Carleton College.

An alternative newspaper is a type of newspaper that eschews comprehensive coverage of general news in favor of stylized reporting, opinionated reviews and columns, investigations into edgy topics and magazine-style feature stories highlighting local people and culture. Its news coverage is more locally focused, and their target audiences are younger than those of daily newspapers. Typically, alternative newspapers are published in tabloid format and printed on newsprint. Other names for such publications include alternative weekly, alternative newsweekly, and alt weekly, as the majority circulate on a weekly schedule.

<i>The Chronicle of Higher Education</i> Newspaper

The Chronicle of Higher Education is a newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty and student affairs professionals, including staff members and administrators. A subscription is required to read some articles.

<i>Cleveland Scene</i> Entertainment newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio

The Cleveland Scene is an alternative weekly newspaper based in Cleveland, Ohio. The newspaper includes highlights of Cleveland-area arts, music, dining, and films, as well as classified advertising. The first edition of the newspaper was published in the 1970s.

<i>Louisville Eccentric Observer</i>

The Louisville Eccentric Observer is a privately owned free urban alternative weekly newspaper, distributed every Wednesday in about 700 locations throughout the Louisville, Kentucky, metropolitan area, including areas of southern Indiana. The newspaper was founded in 1990 by John Yarmuth, Robert Schulman, Denny Crum, and two other investors. According to The Media Audit the LEO has a weekly readership of 88,807 and an unduplicated monthly readership of 136,478.

Village Voice Media or VVM is a newspaper company. It began in 1970 as a weekly alternative newspaper in Phoenix, Arizona. The company, founded by Michael Lacey (editor) and Jim Larkin (publisher), was then known as New Times Inc. (NTI) and the publication was named New Times. The company was later renamed New Times Media.

<i>The Diamondback</i> University of Maryland student newspaper

The Diamondback is an independent student newspaper associated with the University of Maryland, College Park. It began in 1910 as The Triangle and became known as The Diamondback in 1921. Now a weekly online journal, The Diamondback was published as a daily print newspaper on weekdays until 2013. It is published by Maryland Media, Inc., a non-profit organization. The newspaper receives no university funding and derives its revenue from advertising.

Times-Shamrock Communications is an American media company based in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The company, owned by the Lynett and Haggerty families of Scranton, lists among its assets four daily newspapers, six weekly newspapers, and nine radio stations. Most of its properties are in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

<i>Orlando Weekly</i>

Orlando Weekly is a liberal progressive alternative newsweekly distributed in the Greater Orlando area of Florida. Every Thursday, 40,000 issues of the paper are distributed to more than 1,100 locations across Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Newspaper</span> Scheduled publication containing news of events, articles, features, editorials, and advertisements

A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.

The San Antonio Current is a free weekly alternative newspaper in San Antonio, Texas. The Current focuses on investigative journalism, political analysis, and critical coverage of local music and culture. It also contains extensive and up-to-date event listings for San Antonio. A member of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, its style combines tough journalism with humor. The Current has won many journalism awards, often for coverage of subjects and controversies that are largely ignored by other South Texas media outlets.

Various newspapers endorsed candidates in the 2016 United States presidential election, as follows. Tables below also show which candidate each publication endorsed in the 2012 United States presidential election and include only endorsements for the general election. Primary endorsements are separately listed - see Newspaper endorsements in the United States presidential primaries, 2016.

References

  1. "Alliance for Audited Media Snapshot Report – 6/30/2013". Alliance for Audited Media. June 30, 2013. Archived from the original on April 18, 2014. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
  2. Sullivan, Margaret (23 July 2017). "The Atlantic is 'most vital when America is most fractured.' Good thing it soars today". WashingtonPost. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
  3. Woods, Baynard. "As Baltimore City Paper faces the reaper, stakes mount for alt-weeklies," Columbia Journalism Review, Thursday, July 27, 2017. Retrieved June 2, 2020
  4. Kauffman, Zach. "The Changing Face of Journalism". Young Money. Archived from the original on 2014-04-08. Retrieved 2014-03-10.
  5. "City Paper reflections," Baltimore City Paper, November 1, 2017. Retrieved June 2, 2020
  6. "After City Paper, Baltimore Beat Aims to Build a More Diverse News Outlet – Editor & Publisher". www.editorandpublisher.com. Retrieved 2018-07-18.
  7. "After City Paper, Baltimore Beat aims to build a more diverse news outlet". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 2018-07-18.
  8. Baltimore Sun Media Group to buy City Paper
  9. Smith, Russ. "Pictures of You (#3)". Splicetoday.com. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
  10. Smith, Russ. "When Baltimore's Leon Pig Ruled". Splicetoday.com. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
  11. "Lidz weaves a tale of family, life on fringes", 02.19.91 – Baltimore Sun
  12. "Odds are, these guys are real characters", 09.21.95 – Baltimore Sun
  13. "Archived copy". www.johnstrausbaugh.com. Archived from the original on 11 October 2009. Retrieved 19 April 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)