Type | Alternative weekly |
---|---|
Format | Magazine |
Owner(s) | Voice Media Group |
Publisher | Scott Tobias |
Editor | Patricia Calhoun |
Founded | 1977 |
Headquarters | 1278 Lincoln St, Denver, Colorado, 80203, USA |
Circulation | 67,520(as of 2014) [1] |
Website | westword |
Westword is a free digital and print media publication based in Denver, Colorado. Westword publishes daily online coverage of local news, restaurants, music and arts, as well as longform narrative journalism. A weekly print issue circulates every Thursday. Westword has been owned by Voice Media Group since January 2013, when a group of senior executives bought out the previous owners.
Patricia Calhoun has been editor of Westword since she and two of her friends founded the publication in 1977. Calhoun and her former partners sold the newspapers to New Times Media in 1983. [2] In 2005, New Times Media acquired Village Voice Media, and took on the Village Voice Media name as part of a deal that created a group of 14 publications nationwide. [3] In January 2013, former Village Voice Media executives Scott Tobias, Christine Brennan and Jeff Mars bought VVM's papers and associated web properties and formed Voice Media Group. [4]
Westword has received several awards for investigative reporting and feature writing, including the 2017 Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists for Chris Walker's story "Acid Trip". [5]
The publication's website, westword.com, offers daily news coverage along with comprehensive listings of music, arts and other events, along with restaurants and bar listings.
Every year, Westword's staff awards hundreds of Denver-area personalities, restaurants, bars and shops with its "Best of Denver" awards.
The newspaper also throws a yearly concert, the "Westword Music Showcase", which brings dozens of local bands along with national headlining acts to venues in the Golden Triangle. Westword also produces an annual list of Masterminds, people whose contribution to arts and culture in the Denver area deserve special recognition. [6]
Other live events include Artopia, an annual celebration of the arts, Tacolandia, which features dozens of local taquerias and live music, and Feast, which focuses on the city’s entire food scene.
In November 2009 Westword became the first magazine or newspaper worldwide to employ a medical marijuana critic. [7] An anonymous contributor known by the pen name William Breathes contributed regular reviews of local marijuana dispensaries and began a column called "Ask a Stoner". Since that time, Westword has continued to be sympathetic to Colorado's growing recreational and medical marijuana movements, featuring ads for dispensaries in print editions and devoting an entire section of its website to covering the marijuana industry. [8] Westword's current marijuana editor is Thomas Mitchell.
The Westword MasterMind Awards were started in 2005 to recognize and encourage the "aesthetic adventurers who are changing the cultural landscape" of Denver. [9] The award comes with a no-strings attached cash grant. [9] Katie Taft was awarded the Westworld Mastermind Award in 2006.
The Village Voice is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the Voice began as a platform for the creative community of New York City. It ceased publication in 2017, although its online archives remained accessible. After an ownership change, the Voice reappeared in print as a quarterly in April 2021.
Dallas Observer is a free digital and print publication based in Dallas, Texas. The Observer publishes daily online coverage of local news, restaurants, music, and arts, as well as longform narrative journalism. A weekly print issue circulates every Thursday. The Observer has been owned by Voice Media Group since January 2013.
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.
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, which was published until 2023, is now owned by another company, New Portland Publishing.
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.
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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.
Phoenix New Times is a free digital and print media company based in Phoenix, Arizona. PhoenixNew Times publishes daily online coverage of local news, restaurants, music, arts, cannabis, as well as longform narrative journalism. A weekly print issue circulates every Thursday. The company has been owned by Voice Media Group since January 2013, when a group of senior executives bought out the founding owners. Matt Hennie was named editor-in-chief of Phoenix New Times in 2022.
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Carl Quintanilla is an American journalist and co-anchor of Squawk on the Street on CNBC.
New Times Broward-Palm Beach is a news website that, until 2016, also published a weekly print newspaper; it is part of the Voice Media Group chain. The original paper split off from the Miami New Times in 1997 under the auspices of then editor-in-chief Tom Walsh. Walsh was succeeded by Chuck Strouse, who was replaced in 2005 with Tony Ortega. In March 2007, Ortega was appointed editor-in-chief of the company's flagship paper, The Village Voice. In April 2007, Robert Meyerowitz was named editor-in-chief, though he departed the following May to take an endowed chair at the University of Alaska. In 2009, Eric Barton was hired as editor; in June 2012, he left the company when the paper's editorship was combined with that of Miami New Times, where Strouse became editor. Tom Finkel is currently the editor of both papers. In September 2012, Village Voice Media executives Scott Tobias, Christine Brennan, and Jeff Mars bought Village Voice Media's papers and associated web properties from its founders and formed Voice Media Group.
The Denver Cruiser Ride is a monthly bicycle ride in Denver, Colorado. Originally a weekly event, the ride, which runs from May through September each summer, would attract over two-thousand riders each week. Founded in 2005 by Brad Evans, the ride has grown annually and is known for the weekly themes and meetup, originally at the Greek Amphitheater in Civic Center Park, called the "Circle of Death".
Voice Media Group (VMG) is an American privately held media company headquartered in Denver, Colorado. VMG owns several newspaper publications across the country. These offerings extend across print, mobile and digital marketing.
The Colorado Compassion Club was a medical marijuana dispensary in Colorado. It was founded in 2004, opened a storefront in 2005 and registered with the Colorado Secretary of State in 2006 making it the first medical marijuana dispensary in the state of Colorado. This planted the seed in Colorado that grew into the first state to legalize recreational use by the Colorado Amendment 64 on November 6, 2012 along with the state of Washington.
Kayvan Khalatbari is an Iranian-American entrepreneur; he was a mayoral candidate in Denver, Colorado, in 2019.
Leafbuyer Technologies, Inc. (Leafbuyer) is a marketing technology company for the cannabis industry and is an online cannabis resource. The primary function of the company's website is to serve as a coupon directory for cannabis patients and recreational users.
Wanda L. James is the first African American woman to own a marijuana dispensary in the United States.
Mel Tanner was an American light sculptor, painter, installation artist, and videographer. His wife, Dorothy Tanner, was an American light sculptor, installation artist, musician, videographer, and spoken word artist based in Denver, Colorado. The couple worked very closely for over 40 years. Their main project was the creation of Lumonics that consists of their light sculptures, live projection, video, electronics, and music as a total art installation. Author and art historian, Michael Betancourt, described this visual music performance work as a Gesamtkunstwerk in his book, The Lumonics Theater: The Art of Mel & Dorothy Tanner, published in 2004.