Below are summaries and, when possible, links to articles about the alternative press in general and New Times in particular.

About New Times

The Evil Empire
Occasionally, other publications have accused New Times of being overly aggressive in its business dealings. The company has never hesitated to defend itself in print.
· Read the San Francisco Bay Guardian's 2002 story accusing New Times of predatory behavior.
· Read SF Weekly editor John Mecklin's response.
· Read Mecklin's followup column two years later, after the Bay Guardian actually sued New Times, accusing it of selling advertising below cost in an attempt to drive the Guardian out of business.
· Read New Times executive editor Michael Lacey's column responding to attacks on the company launched by the editor of the Cleveland Free Times. Among other things, Free Times editor David Eden referred to New Times management as "scumbags and cowards" after the Justice Department opened an investigation of a deal under which Village Voice Media sold the Free Times to New Times and New Times sold its former Los Angeles paper to VVM.

The Right to Parody
In September 2004, after a protracted legal battle, the Dallas Observer struck a blow for the right of Americans (at least those living in Texas) to lampoon pretentious public figures. In a case that often defied common sense, the paper spent nearly five years defending itself against a libel suit filed by a county court judge and a local district attorney whose feelings were hurt when the paper held them up to ridicule for their handling of a case in which a thirteen-year-old girl was arrested for reading a Halloween story with graphic imagery to her class. The paper�s eventual victory in the Texas Supreme Court established an important if expensive precedent: Humor isn�t illegal just because it�s aimed at the humorless.
· Read coverage of the case from Texas Lawyer.
· Read the Observer�s in-house coverage of the Supreme Court ruling.
· Read the original Observer parody that sparked the controversy.

Arsonist Archives
In January 2001, Phoenix New Times staff writer James Hibberd landed an exclusive interview with an unidentified man who claimed to be the monkey-wrenching arsonist responsible for torching homes under construction near a wilderness preserve. Hibberd's scoop--and the paper's decision to protect the confidentiality of its controversial source--sparked an avalanche of national media coverage, both positive and negative.

      "Fanning Ethics Flames"
      By Christina Leonard
      Arizona Republic, January 25, 2001
      (The complete text of this article is available for a fee at
     www.azcentral.com)

      "Firestorm Surrounds Phoenix New Times Story"
      By Randy Dotinga
      E&P Online, February 1, 2001
     (link to complete article)

      "Arizona Prosecutor Subpoenas Editor"
      E&P Online, February 5, 2001
      (link to complete article)

      "A Newspaper Plays With Fire: Did a reporter go too far
      in pursuit of a hot story?"
      By James Taranto
      WSJ Opinion Journal, February 7, 2001
      (The complete article can be viewed at
      www.opinionjournal.com)

      "Judge: Reporter Doesn't Have to Reveal Name
     of Professed Arsonist"
      By Senta Scarborough
      Arizona Republic, February 27, 2001
      (The complete text of this article is available for a fee at
     www.azcentral.com)

"Hip Ink"
By David Villano
Florida Trend, June 2000 (The complete article can be viewed at www.floridatrend.com )
In June 2000, business magazine Florida Trend wrote about the growing influence of alternative weeklies in the Sunshine State. Using Miami New Times as its centerpiece, "Hip Ink" detailed how weeklies such as the New Times papers in Miami and Broward/Palm Beach have grown while dailies have shrunk--and also described the desperate measures daily publishers have employed in an attempt to fight back.

"Consider the Alternative"
By Sharyn Wizda
Reprinted by permission of American Journalism Review
American Journalism Review, November 1998 (link to complete article)
New Times papers tell stories--but the story behind the publishing company is quite a tale as well. Convinced that readers appreciate good reporting and good writing, New Times publishes alternative newsweeklies--ten of them to date--that break journalistic rules, win readers and make money.

"Cause of the '90s for New Times: Building an Empire"
Arizona Republic, August 11, 1996 (link to summary)
From a weekly Phoenix newspaper with roots in the antiwar movement, New Times has grown into a publishing empire, where the ringing of cash registers has drowned out Bob Dylan tunes.

"Stunts, Deception Play Part in New Times Journalism"
Arizona Republic, August 11, 1996 (link to summary)
New Times readers know that life is a mix of the funny and the tragic, says NTI executive editor Michael Lacey, and they appreciate a paper that does, too.

"An Alternative to Denver Dailies"
Editor & Publisher, October 21, 1995 (link to summary)
The weekly Westword prefers to beat rather than berate its daily competitors, going head-to-head on local stories and challenging the dailies to rise above complacency and boosterism on local issues.

"Houston Press Is Set to Rise..."
Wall Street Journal, April 26, 1995 (link to summary)
When the Houston Post shut down, the city was left with only one daily and an alternative weekly. Even after the daily Houston Chronicle scoops up its share of the defunct Post's advertisers, the weekly Houston Press will have plenty of fat crumbs to gather up.

"Paper Clips"
Alternet, January 1, 1995 (link to complete article)
New Times has bought the SF Weekly, adding yet another paper to its multicity chain of alternative weeklies--and inspiring cries of "cookie-cutter journalism" from the competing San Francisco Bay Guardian.

"Rads to Riches"
Texas Monthly, June 1994 (link to summary)
Taking up where dailies have failed the reader---but closer to center than the far left where they started--New Times's Jim Larkin and Mike Lacey have established an award-winning weekly newspaper chain that shows no signs of slowing down.

"From New Times to Boom Times"
American Way Magazine, February 15, 1992 (link to complete article)
Twenty-five years ago, New Times's Jim Larkin and Mike Lacey were working-class college dropouts with an antiwar college paper. Now, while dailies are failing across the country, they're forging an empire of award-winning and profitable alternative weeklies.

"Boom Times for New Times"
Forbes, October 14, 1991 (link to summary)
By exploiting the trend of falling circulation numbers among dailies and rising circulation numbers among weeklies, Mike Lacey and Jim Larkin of New Times have created the nation's largest (by circulation) publisher of alternative newspapers. And they're not done yet.

"Lacey and Larkin: Twenty years later,
Phoenix's bad boys are taking their place among the presslords of America"
Phoenix Magazine, October 1990 (link to complete article)
Mike Lacey and Jim Larkin, who run the Phoenix-based New Times, have found a formula that has made theirs one of the nation's largest and most lucrative chains of newsweeklies. Here's how the legendary "nose-thumbing" editor and far-seeing businessman--and their papers--have evolved since the days of the underground press.

About The Alternative Press

"No Longer Just Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll"
Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 1999 (link to complete article)
These are good times for the $400-million-a-year alternative newspaper industry. So good, in fact, that a war has erupted between rival alternative chains that have gone national at the same time: James Larkin and Michael Lacey's New Times and Leonard Stern's Stern Publishing Company.

"Chaining the Alternatives"
The Nation, June 29, 1998 (link to complete article)
Shunning political agendas and embracing capitalism, corporate newsweekly chains are changing the face of the alternative press. But are they losing their edge (and conscience) while gaining revenues?

"Needs More Color"
Austin Chronicle, November 28, 1997 (link to complete article)
Alternative newsweeklies, notorious for touting diversity, are glaringly homogeneous. Though some excuse the whiteness as a function of supply and demand, many call this a cop-out--lack of color is a function of lack of recruitment effort.

"Hip and Irreverent"
Wall Street Journal, July 28, 1997 (link to summary)
With circulation among daily newspapers in a long, slow decline, robust growth is the trend among alternative weeklies, which appeal to a demographic that's not interested in the dailies: young urban singles. For the weeklies, this means higher ad revenues and a new role as the "second paper"--i.e., the paper that keeps in check big dailies' tendency toward editorial complacency.

"The News Wars: Read All About It"
Time, October 21, 1996 (link to complete article)
Circulation and readership numbers for dailies have been declining for years, and two-daily towns are becoming a rarity. The papers succeeding in these hard times are those that target a narrower and easily definable market--alternative weeklies. At the same time, some of the alternatives, such as those published by New Times Inc., have assumed the dailies' old role of community watchdog.

"A New-Style Alternative Press"
Ad Week, July 22 1996 (link to complete article)
Drawn by rising circulation figures and a young, college-educated, affluent demographic, both local and national advertisers are looking to alternative weeklies. Even as the number of competing weeklies in single-daily cities, such as Dallas, goes up, the size of the pie increases.

"Established Alternatives"
Quill Magazine, Jan/Feb 1995 (link to summary)
Having grown up since the underground press days of the early Seventies, publishers such as Jim Larkin and Mike Lacey of New Times Inc. and Bruce Brugmann of the San Francisco Bay Guardian are becoming the press barons of the modern era, setting the model for a new journalism that thwarts the power structure and invigorates communities.