I read this Washington Post piece on D.C.'s much-loved, but struggling, weekly City Paper with a great deal of interest -- City Paper was where I turned in the mid-80s for a sense of what cool and alternative news looked like; Style Weekly had barely emerged from Lorna's guest bedroom at the time, and barely caught my attention.
As I was reading it, I was thinking how lucky Richmond is to have a relatively solid (or at least outwardly optimistic) weekly of its own that has found a strong voice and developed a reputation for being Johnny-on-the-spot with its city coverage.
Then I read the last paragraph of the piece on City Paper, and remembered that I have a very different set of information gathering and reading habits than the under 20 set does. A conversation with about 100 (mostly) freshman Mass Comm students last fall almost set my head a'spinning when only one -- one! -- student said they had picked up a Times-Dispatch or Style Weekly in the past week.
Here's how City Paper founder Russ Smith framed it:
Russ Smith: I really don't see any future for print weeklies. My oldest son is 16. He is in a band and plays in clubs around town. He's also a filmmaker. So he is an artsy kind of kid, and his interest is such that 25 years ago he would be the type to pick up a City Paper the day it came out. He never picks it up. He spends a lot of time waiting for a leak of the new Animal Collective release or something, but he doesn't pick up a City Paper. He says: "Dad, it's cool that you started it and everything, but what does it mean to me? These guys are out of touch." You lose that audience, and forget it.
