Rob Harvilla for The Ringer has a great look at how—and what—alt-weeklies are doing these days. I especially appreciated this bit from The Austin Chronicle’s music editor.
“One of the things I’ve done for most of my 27 years at the Chronicle is edit the live music listings page: Here are the 20 shows you need to know in the next week,” the Austin Chronicle’s Raoul Hernandez explains. At first the paper pivoted to playlists, to streaming suggestions, to downloads. “So that’s worked well. But as the state has opened up and there have been some live music events, suddenly the question is ‘So, are we recommending these?’ And it hasn’t been much of a question to me, because as the editor of the page, the answer is simple: No, I am not recommending anybody go out.”
It is impossible to overstate how bizarre those words sound, coming out of a veteran alt-weekly music editor’s mouth. “Which is a hard position to be in, because we’re the boosters of the local clubs and the artists,” Hernandez says. “We’re part of that ecosystem. So to not be able to get behind them and say, ‘Go team!’ is not a position anyone wants to be in. But what do we recommend? We recommend you stay home. That’s what we recommend.”