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'State of the Media: Alternative Press

Alternative papers also represent one of the fastest-growing sectors in the media world. But many are not really "alternative," at least not in the way the term was defined in the 1960s.

Then, alternative papers provided strong political voices often critical of government and challenging the status quo, something rarely found then or now in the mainstream press.

Those days are long gone, however, as the PEJ report makes clear. Today's alternative publications are more likely filled with ads from the very establishment operations they once derided as capitalist tools. And the content now tends more toward movie reviews and "best of" articles, rather than diatribes on Marxist ideology.

There are still a few publications that maintain the 60s mantra. However, according to this report, those publications are now labeled the "dissident" press.

The report's authors express some surprise at the demographic make-up of those who read today's alternative media -- the median age of readers is now in the 30s, and for some publications the 40s. The authors must not be regular readers of New York's Village Voice or the Chicago Reader. If they were, they would see the focus now is not edgier fare favored by the younger crowd. Rather, the editorial content is more like a comfortable shoe, designed to wear well and not pinch. In other words, you'll rarely find articles that challenge readers beyond whether they should eat Chinese or Ethiopian this weekend.

And that does not bode well for environmental coverage. Environmental stories typically require a readership more engaged than those simply looking for a movie and a date. Yet the typical editorial fare in the alternatives is rarely challenging or in-depth.

There will be a periodic article taking shots at some unfortunate city government official. And in Washington, D.C., where politics is both a contact and a spectator sport, the City Paper has a popular column that covers the local political scene. But this is more the exception than the rule. More typically, the fare is focused on "news you can use," such as events listings, movie and restaurant reviews and huge numbers of personal ads.

What is less prominent is news that requires a more in-depth treatment and that challenges the reader. And that means there is little hope that alternative media, as they now stand, will substantially increase coverage of major environmental stories.

The whole point of alternative media today seems to be to deliver eyeballs to advertisers. And when selling ads becomes the primary focus of a media outlet, stories perceived as potentially damaging to those same advertisers, such as environmental stories, often get left behind. What is left is material designed for the most part to be inoffensive to advertisers and appealing to those with disposable incomes.

Given this editorial focus, the older demographic should not be a surprise. That's because this age group has a higher median income than the population in general -- $50,000 to $70,000, depending on the publication. And this means readers also have a disposable income coveted by advertisers.

Both circulation and revenues for alternative publications skyrocketed during the 1990s according to the PEJ report authors. Revenue climbed from around $170 million to $500 million, while circulation doubled to more than seven million by 2002. In other words, this isn't your daddy's alternative media.