The alt-weekly Providence Phoenix will close, Ted Nesi reports. The paper was founded in 1979 as the NewPaper and survived the death of its sibling paper, the Boston Phoenix, which closed last year.
Phoenix Media COO Everett Finkelstein “did not mention what would happen to the third paper in the company’s stable, the Portland Phoenix of Maine,” Nesi writes.
While some alt-weeklies have adapted to the loss of traditional revenue sources like classified and display ads, many have struggled. Of the country’s Top 20 weeklies, only two saw circulation gains in 2013, Pew reported earlier this year.
Jack Shafer wrote about how alts’ fortunes eroded — many were built for a different era, when record companies stuffed their stockings with cash and before smartphones beat them “as a boredom killer.”
Related: How some alt-weeklies are innovating their way out of a crisis
