Weekly Newspaper? (better)

[phillies2011]

Originally Posted by bryson662001

It just goes to show you. LOL I say the opposite is true, at least for the last 20 years. I haven't picked up either in about six months. Has there been a radical change recently?

haha have you gotten them mixed up? I've been reading both for the past 15 years and I'm going to have to side firmly with scosm here.

The City Paper is a pretty impressive newspaper that does some really important reporting. City Paper was the first to break the DROP scandal, they connected Corbett's campaign money to fracking and natural gas drilling outfits before the inky or anyone else and their reporting on fracking in general was far ahead of the bigger local and even national outlets.

Every year they win handfuls of awards for their investigative reporting and high quality journalism, something that is even more impressive considering their budget appears to be funded mainly through selling ad space to transsexual prostitutes haha.

They also have a great cultural section, but it's the reporting that really sets it apart.

The Philadelphia Weekly is nice newspaper... but imho it's doesn't have a fraction of the journalistic quality that the City Paper does in regards to actual reporting. PW cover stories are frequently interviews and stuff of that nature as opposed to investigative reporting. PW did however historically have some great writers working for them who done excellent work, Steven Wells in particular was amazing and his stories about his struggles with cancer were heartbreaking and moving while also being amazing funny.

Both papers are really high quality free local weeklies, City Paper though in my opinion is one of the very best in the country.

There is also the Philadelphia Gay News which is the oldest LGBT newspaper in the country. However I feel that publication has been hurt by the fact that the gay community in Philadelphia is now so accepted and spread out. As the LGBT community becomes more and more accepted as equals the idea of a LGBT centered newspaper is becoming a bit antiquated. It's great for the gay community but it doesn't seem to be good for the PGN. Over the years the amount of content and its quality has diminished in the paper to the point that I no longer read it.

Overall there are a lot of great options for free weekly news papers in Philly!

[phillies2011]

Originally Posted by newmarlig

I still miss The Welcomat.

the welcomat is still around. It just has a new name: Philadelphia Weekly.

I didn't get to read much of the Welcomat, pretty sure it became the Philly Weekly in the late ninties back when I was in High School. But from what I remember it was a much better paper than the Philly Weekly of today. I don't think it was the name change that affected the quality though as the PW will great for a number of years after the name change. It was until the last half decade or so that PW began to shift downwards.

[newmarlig]

Originally Posted by phillies2011

the welcomat is still around. It just has a new name: Philadelphia Weekly.

I didn't get to read much of the Welcomat, pretty sure it became the Philly Weekly in the late ninties back when I was in High School. But from what I remember it was a much better paper than the Philly Weekly of today. I don't think it was the name change that affected the quality though as the PW will great for a number of years after the name change. It was until the last half decade or so that PW began to shift downwards.

I know that's true, but it's not the same.

[bryson662001]

Your perception may depend on your politics. For a long time the Welcome Mat/PW was a radical, left wing newspaper with one bleeding heart story about the poor and downtrodden after another. Then the long time editor (Tim Whitaker)was fired or left. I haven't actually read it for a long time except to check the real estate so I don't know which way they swing these days.

[phillies2011]

Originally Posted by bryson662001

Your perception may depend on your politics. For a long time the Welcome Mat/PW was a radical, left wing newspaper with one bleeding heart story about the poor and downtrodden after another. Then the long time editor (Tim Whitaker)was fired or left. I haven't actually read it for a long time except to check the real estate so I don't know which way they swing these days.

I don't really think politics matter. They're alternative weeklies in a major urban area. By their very nature they lean very liberal. I wouldn't call either radically left wing but they are both well left of center.

It's not like their politics are really different so that shouldn't really come into play.

[bryson662001]

Originally Posted by phillies2011

I wouldn't call either radically left wing but they are both well left of center.

LOL

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by bryson662001

Your perception may depend on your politics. For a long time the Welcome Mat/PW was a radical, left wing newspaper with one bleeding heart story about the poor and downtrodden after another. Then the long time editor (Tim Whitaker)was fired or left. I haven't actually read it for a long time except to check the real estate so I don't know which way they swing these days.

Are you thinking of the Distant Drummer?

[phillies2011]

Originally Posted by bryson662001

LOL

????? not sure what's funny about that. the term radical implies political views that are not within the normal sphere of politics. pushing for ideas that are so far left that they haven't as to this point been realistically debated or enacted within our government. If these newspapers were pushing for socialism or something like that I'd call them radically left wing. That is not what these newspapers are. They aren't playing to some far left fringe. These are newspapers that are read by hundreds and thousands of people every week. They support gay marriage, they are concerned about the environmental affects of fracking, they come out against corbetts spending cuts in education, etc. These are not far out fringe politics, these are political views held by well more than half the population of Philadelphia.

They are liberal newspapers and they are not moderately liberal. They are far left of center. But City Paper and PW are not "radically" left wing newspapers. The opinions and beliefs seen in either of these papers are not fringe or radical but very mainstream in the sense these views are shared by a very sizable proportion of the American population. In the Philadelphia market which is considerably further to the left than America as a whole, to call such views radically left wing is even more nonsensical.

You're entitled to your own political beliefs and if you you think that the City Paper and PW are so radically far left that you would never read them aside from looking at real estate listing then that's fine. No one is forcing you to read them.

I just wonder why someone who doesn't read them would bother giving opinions about them and their contents if you really don't read them and don't know.

[Fireshaker]

You use the word radical, but I don't think it means what you think it means.

I did some interning and writing for PW back when Tim was still the editor, and I certainly wouldn't call it radical. Liberal? Absolutely. But "radical" implies something far outside the normal scope of discussion, and that just wasn't the case.

Seems a lot of people want to use "radical" simply to describe a viewpoint that's opposite from theirs, which doesn't do justice to the true definition of the word.

[bryson662001]

Perhaps radical is the wrong word. Would "extreme" be a better fit?

Originally Posted by phillies2011

You're entitled to your own political beliefs and if you you think that the City Paper and PW are so radically far left that you would never read them aside from looking at real estate listing then that's fine. No one is forcing you to read them.

I just wonder why someone who doesn't read them would bother giving opinions about them and their contents if you really don't read them and don't know.

As I stated earlier I did read them for 20 years and only stopped 6 months ago. There isn't that much to read actually since they are both about 90% advertising.