Battling Edmonton Freebies Merge

[jon]

Alternative weeklies Vue and See to merge after years of acrimony
By Todd Babiak, Edmonton Journal
May 19, 2011

In 2000, I was working for a new television station with offices in Toronto and the West. We were looking for media partners in Edmonton and my boss, in Toronto, asked about alternative weeklies.

I told him there were two, in my city of one million: See and Vue. I had, like most writers in Edmonton, freelanced for both.

This made no sense to my boss in Toronto. See and Vue? Did these people not understand the principle of branding? I reminded my boss that until recently, the nine-team Canadian Football League was distinguished by the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Ottawa Rough Riders.

"There must be a story to this," said my boss.

Was there ever.

The sales manager for Vue met me in my office. We didn't talk much about partnerships. Instead, for an hour, I listened to him talk about See as though it were a secret government laboratory making a toxin to kill babies and kittens. My meeting with See was similarly fraught; if I remember well, tears were shed.

The unpleasantness had begun in the mid-1990s. At that time, the father of the Edmonton alternative weekly, Ron Garth, owned the notquite-successful See. Then, all of a sudden, he didn't own it. Stung by the deception, he opened a nearidentical competitor called Vue. When See was purchased by Great West Newspapers, then a division of Hollinger, the forceful Garth, of the long grey ponytail, branded Vue as 100-per-cent independent.

"The entire existence of two papers was premised on a dispute," said Bob Doull, who now owns both weeklies. "It was illogical. But I have nothing to do with the dispute."

So Doull is ending it. Soon, there will be one alternative weekly in Edmonton: Vue.

The idea of the alternative weekly originated with a feisty group of New Yorkers that included Norman Mailer. They launched the Village Voice in the 1950s as a counterpoint to the mainstream, corporate press in the capital of American media. Writers were younger, poorer and bolder than their peers at the establishment newspapers. They told stories differently, about the arts and anything else the big papers wouldn't cover. Some of them were brilliant. The Voice was sometimes funny, sometimes academic, sometimes ridiculous, often filled with a revolutionary spirit. They helped inspire what is now known as "the '60s."

Today, the governing idea of the alternative weekly is in danger. Free papers are everywhere, and many of them are garbage -diluting the brand, overall. The Village Voice and almost all the others are owned by large corporations, who have long been in the business of focus grouping that youthful, anarchic energy into something that looks eerily like Lady Gaga.

"We've always agonized about that," said Doull, who operates 13 community newspapers in B.C. "At what point do you become a chain? I live in Penticton and operate out of my basement. I'm the sole director of the company, so I'm responsible for the decisions. In that sense we're independent. But you're never really independent. You always have banks, shareholders."

And advertisers. This is always tricky: How do you separate journalists from your advertising and executive teams, who are out in the community shaking hands and munching canapés with the subject of this week's snotty column or investigative takedown? This hasn't been a major concern with See and Vue, as they are devoted primarily to arts coverage, but it remains important. Bad reviews of big shows hurt.

Doull said the new paper will be larger than either of the two current versions. He doesn't want to lose staff. If people are willing, they could theoretically move to one of his other properties. But none of those decisions have been made. On Wednesday, he was shuttling between the papers' offices, speaking to staff, to insurers and, in the early afternoon, to my delight, answering the phone.

Doull has lived in Edmonton twice, and he intends to be here often to watch over the new Vue.

The best news, for Edmonton's writers, readers, designers, arts organizations and advertisers, is that Doull thinks the new paper will be stronger than the current versions of See and Vue put together. These two scrappy papers have nurtured and supported Edmonton's best writers and visual artists; losing some of those opportunities, and voices, would be tragic.

"One thing I've been squawking about is the type," said Doull.

"I'm getting older and it's hard to see the type in Vue. So that's one change I'll definitely make."

Long live the revolution.
ref. - http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business ... story.html

[jon]

Both of these weeklies are well respected Arts-oriented free tabloid style newspapers, widely available in newspaper boxes and restaurants across Edmonton.

Equally interesting is Todd Babiak's background in TV. As I've said before, I don't always agree with Todd's point of view, but I've long championed his writing.