Comments on: What Would You Pay To Read An Award-Winning Alt-Weekly?

By: Patrick

Patrick — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 02:01:17 +0000

How much could we pay you to shut down?

By: THE SHADOW

THE SHADOW — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:15:42 +0000

City Paper needs to be more alternative, more hard-core. Beef up the investigative reporting. Start pushing the envelope more.

More coverage of social and political issues. Areas devoted to green technology. Vegetarianism. Anti-war activities.

Get more left-wing. Stop pretending to be alternative. Printing cheap porno ads and carrying Savage Love don't make you cool or "underground"

DC has enough of Play it Safe, stripped down corp. whore bullshit.

By: Truth Hurts

Truth Hurts — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:42:46 +0000

I'll contribute to keep CP going if it comes to that. Some stories/blogs suck, but CP has 3 or 4 top notch, savvy reporters that deliver the goods day after day. What kind of city would DC be without the city paper?

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:04:37 +0000

Mr. Cheriks: I don't mind the Barry stories, but I would like to see more stories that involve what goes on in the Distrit, and affect District residents, besides the filming of The Real World. I enjoyed the story about the westside library patrons complaining about the homeless using the facility, Wilson's High School defunct swimming pool, and the whistle blowing fire fighter.

By: The Real Dave

The Real Dave — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:54:43 +0000

Hey! Quit bogarting my handle, fake Dave!

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:20:34 +0000

No.
I find the paper version more useful.
90% of the reason that I read any alt-weekly is for the restaurant reviews.
If you charge, then I will just use Yelp more.

By: liam

liam — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:08:12 +0000

Sites I'd be willing to pay for:

NY Times
Huff Post
W Post (until this latest redesign, anyway)
DCist
and probably you guys

By: sock puppet

sock puppet — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:05:58 +0000

I wouldn't mind paying to have a subscription mailed to an ex-patriot and often, the online content is trial ballooned ideas and the print has more fleshed out development.

By: Will Atwood Mitchell

Will Atwood Mitchell — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:47:45 +0000

Shit, if I could think of a way to make our online content *more* free, I would do that.

By: Matty B

Matty B — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:37:13 +0000

Nobody's addressing Cherkis' questions.

Your features can range from decent to superb, but I do notice that they are growing gradually slimmer (in this past issue it only covered two pages). Sometimes the cover story is only a column and there isn't even an additional piece of in-depth reportage. I understand that journalism is getting to be a fast, terse environment, but I'm also sure that your readership would appreciate deep, comprehensive stories on a weekly basis. Don't become like the new WaPo Magazine that you justafiably berate nearly every day.

Moreover: besides the features, your news section consists only of columns, and three of them syndicated at that. Most of them are very good, but seriously - what gives? I know more stuff is happening in the District every week. And I'm not implying that you should merely copy and paste blog posts into the print edition. Expand on them, perhaps, but they need to be actual worthwhile articles.

That being said, everything in the print edition should be available online.

By: downtown rez

downtown rez — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:31:37 +0000

FWIW, I think CP's features are good more often than not. And I like to read LL, who IMO covers things better than WP does.
The online columns (they're not really web logs in the way I think of blogs) strike me as a good model. Especially since they can be collected once/week for print.

By: Jason Cherkis

Jason Cherkis — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:49:25 +0000

What kinds of stories do you want to see more of?

By: jf1

jf1 — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:34:19 +0000

I don't know.

Take all the annoying ads out, and write some interesting articles, and let me check it out for a while, meanwhile I'll think about it.

By: Muckraker

Muckraker — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:57:29 +0000

The print edition is not free in Chinatown. The dang boxes have been empty for three weeks. What gives?

By: Jason Cherkis

Jason Cherkis — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:34:38 +0000

Mike: What content disappoints you most? Don't worry my feelings won't be hurt if you say "police reporting" or "anything related to Barry." We still do post investigative cover stories. See our story on Ron Moten. That story is an excellent example of alt-weekly journalism at its best.