Free rags?

February 27, 2006 7:45 AM

What are some of the better free weekly rags where you live?

Being from MA we have a pretty wide variety of free weekly and bi-weekly publications available. But I'm curious to see what works elsewhere that might be a little different from what I'm used to seeing. Bonus points for rags from college towns/cities. Any extra insight into how ad supported papers in your area do from a business perspective would also be of interest.

posted by paxton to media & arts (33 comments total)

the Austin Chronicle (where I recently moved from) is way better than the two here in Portland.
posted by j at 7:53 AM on February 27, 2006

In Cleveland, the Free Times is better than the Scene. Cleveland is, I guess, a college city - Cleveland State and Case Western Reserve (which I attend) are here. But I don't think either free paper really caters to the college crowd.
posted by amro at 8:05 AM on February 27, 2006

Locals love to complain about it, but Minneapolis's City Pages has quite a good rep in the altnewsweekly world (disclaimer -- I was the theater critic for CP for three years, and still occasionally write for it.)

The great dirty secret of newsweeklies is that the wealthier ones get much of their money from ads for escort services and the like. The world of porn and sex work has done much to support the world of alternative publications in this country, and the newsweeklies that seem to do best financially all have back pages filled with their ads.
posted by Astro Zombie at 8:10 AM on February 27, 2006

In Milwaukee, we have the Shepherd Express which is a great alternative weekly newspaper. There is also the World Famous Onion, which is America's Finest News Source. It was originally started here in Wisconsin. There are a few other free weeklies but IMO they are not as good as the main two.
posted by JJ86 at 8:13 AM on February 27, 2006

The best one in Columbia, SC is the Free Times as well. They seem to make a lot of their money from adult themed ads, as Astro Zombie said.
posted by ND¢ at 8:14 AM on February 27, 2006

the only alternative weekly of any interest in Chattanooga, TN is The Pulse. it's also the only alternative weekly in Chattanooga, TN.
posted by mcsweetie at 8:16 AM on February 27, 2006

Toronto has Eye Weekly and Now Magazine. Personally, I can't stand either one, but they do seem to be particularly popular.
posted by antifuse at 8:18 AM on February 27, 2006

Seattle has the Stranger, home to Dan Savage who writes the weekly Savage Love column. It's chock full of great local entertainment information, as well as local political news.
posted by amelliferae at 8:44 AM on February 27, 2006

Indianapolis has Nuvo.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:49 AM on February 27, 2006

Here in San Diego, there's the San Diego Weekly Reader. I haven't read it in a long time. On campus at UCSD, there's the Guardian (main campus news), The MQ (satire), and some of the colleges come out with their own paper every quarter or something. During the weekdays, we can get the LA Times (OC edition), USA Today, and the San Diego Union Tribune, for free--but they're not really *free*.
posted by Korou at 8:52 AM on February 27, 2006

Chicago has the Chicago Reader and Streetwise. The Reader you can pick up in lots of indie stores and on streetcorners; Streetwise is handed out by homeless/down-on-their-luck people. Though technically, it costs a dollar and so isn't really free.

I'm sure there are others in Chicago, and someone with more knowledge will be along shortly.
posted by bibbit at 8:56 AM on February 27, 2006

the San Francisco Bay area has too many free weeklies, all of which have varying quality. No, I'm not complaining about having too many - luckly SFist does a weekly round up of them, which is invaluable. They even declare a winner for the week.

One of my favourite Bay Area rags is the Wave, which comes out roughly a couple times a month, give or take. The content is not just your traditional weekly's columnists etc. - they find interesting tidbits from all over.

I do miss Toronto's eye. It had its fine points.
posted by rmm at 9:00 AM on February 27, 2006

DC has the city paper, but honestly, i'm not a huge fan of the writing, I just use it to help find things to do.
posted by echo0720 at 9:00 AM on February 27, 2006

Kansas City has The Pitch
posted by BSummers at 9:08 AM on February 27, 2006

Vancouver has the Georgia Straight (the biggest and most widely distributed), Westender, Only, The Nerve, Xtra West, and finally Dose, which it shares with other major Canadian cities. Terminal City was the best one, but it stopped publishing on Oct. 27th.
posted by ori at 9:33 AM on February 27, 2006

New York has a lot, but the main two are NY Press and the Village Voice. I personally prefer the Voice, but to each his own.

The Onion is also now NYC-based.

I also think there's the L (for Brooklyn), and then I know there are others ... plus free dailies like AMNY and Metro.
posted by anjamu at 9:37 AM on February 27, 2006

The Wave

SF Bay Guardian

The Metro

There are a couple more, but they're mostly filled up with ads.
posted by drstein at 9:50 AM on February 27, 2006

the Tucson Weekly is a great free alternative news source for this town. like others have mentioned, it is funded (it seems) mainly by ads for strip clubs and escort services in the back. but the movie and chow reviews are great, the state politics coverage is unparalleled (in this town, at least), and they have all the syndicated bits I love.
the University of Arizona's Arizona Daily Wildcat usually keeps its circulation and coverage to the campus and immediate surrounding area, but is rather well put-together. considering the impact the U has on this burg, I feel it should be mentioned. oh, also the ADW has weird shit going down every so often.
posted by carsonb at 9:54 AM on February 27, 2006

In Chicago there's also (in addition to the Reader and Streetwise as mentioned above) New City. We have the Onion, too.

And... as for the major weekly free papers, I think that's it. I have a pre-press friend who could tell you all about things like Bulgarian Business News and Socialist Worker publications, but I don't even know where one would find those.

Oh, and Red Eye and Red Streak for free dailies.
posted by ruby.aftermath at 9:56 AM on February 27, 2006

Little Rock's got The Arkansas Times. They started out selling subscriptions, but made their greatest business leap when they became a free, totally ad-supported tabloid. They also publish a local classified ad paper, Spanish-language tabloid, and some higher-end glossy magazine stuff.

I'm biased, but they're a great paper. Run by crusty old newspapermen who got pissed off when Big Rich Conservative Daily took over in town and swallowed their old daily whole.
posted by middleclasstool at 10:30 AM on February 27, 2006

Here in Jackson, MS we have the Jackson Free Press. It's only been around for a few years, but has made a big splash.
posted by spakto at 10:34 AM on February 27, 2006

Back home in North Florida in high school I used to love the Folio Weekly. Kind of a "Village Voice Lite" for liberal rednecks like myself.
posted by saladin at 10:39 AM on February 27, 2006

Seattle's two free independent weeklies are The Stranger and Seattle Weekly. I mean, I am sure there are more but in terms of popularity it's those two and nothing else really comes close.
posted by apple scruff at 10:42 AM on February 27, 2006

I should mention the rag that I used to edit in Omaha: The Reader.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:12 AM on February 27, 2006

Pittsburgh has the City Paper. It also runs Savage Love, which is pretty impressive for such a conservative town.
posted by denimflavored at 12:10 PM on February 27, 2006

I'm in Chicago now, but Champaign-Urbana has The Hub which is the alternative weekly that has replaced "The Paper", which replaced "The Octopus", which was much better when it was "The Octopus", but The Hub is still a good alternative weekly for sure.

There's also The Buzz which is the student-run weekly.
posted by twiggy at 12:41 PM on February 27, 2006

Oh yeah - Champaign-Urbana is a college town by the way -- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to be exact.
posted by twiggy at 12:41 PM on February 27, 2006

The Portland Mercury is sister paper to The Stranger. Consistently hilarious.

Then there's Willamette Week, which is notable because they recently won a Pulitzer. IMHO, it's not so much that WW won the Pulitzer but that mainstream media lost the Pulitzer. Nevertheless, they actually sometimes, kinda-sorta, engage in the dead art of investigative journalism.

Lastly, there's the Portland Tribune, which has occasionally good neighborhood news, but has much more conservative roots. They also received a lot of guff to moving their hq to the suburbs.
posted by Skwirl at 12:51 PM on February 27, 2006

If you want a comparison, the Cleveland Free Times is a little more like the Weekly Dig and the Scene is a little more like the Phoenix, although it's probably more corporate and content-free. [Of course, because it's better, the Free Times has a smaller distribution and is perennially in danger of disappearing.] Like most alterna-weeklies, they're aimed more at a general youngish hip crowd, rather than specifically at students. Cleveland's less of a college town than Boston [the only colleges I can think of near downtown are CSU, Case, and John Carroll], so the Free Times and Scene may be a little less student-orientated than most. Also like most alterna-weeklies, they're both supported primarily through ads [for music venues, pr0n/sex stuff, and of course personals.]
posted by ubersturm at 1:16 PM on February 27, 2006

Here in San Diego, there's the San Diego Weekly Reader. I haven't read it in a long time.

Because it's almost completely worthless (in meaning besides being free, I mean). The Reader has a couple good features, one or two lame comics, and page after page of plastic surgery and cell phone ads. There might be three decent pages of actual written material in the whole thing, and the only reason I pick it up (religiously!) is for the local concert listings.

As far as actual content, CityBeat is far superior, and I almost read it cover to cover every week.

A year or two ago, we had another weekly called Farehnheit, but that was a sadly short-lived enterprise.
posted by LionIndex at 1:50 PM on February 27, 2006

There is a weekly called Westword in Denver, Colorado. Best of Westword comes out once a year and dissapears within a few days.
posted by BoscosMom at 9:52 PM on February 27, 2006

I've read The Dallas Observer for a few years now and aside from all the crap ads, they have the most interesting reviews and articles. It's totally worth the extremely high price of "walking inside the music store or Best Buy and picking up a copy".
posted by damnjezebel at 3:11 AM on February 28, 2006

Most of the major weeklies can be found in the AAN directory.
posted by BigFatWhale at 1:01 PM on February 28, 2006