This just in from MYSPACE...times they are a changin'!!
LA Alternative will no longer be printing the Paper version of it's weekly news magazine...and will they go strictly monitor? Let's hope so!
This means that for sure, there is no room for ludites...
Here is the bulletin text:
Our cover story last week began with the phrase, “Everything ends,” and it’s a phrase that is perhaps more relevant than we thought at the time.
This issue of L.A. Alternative will be the last. This is not to say our unique voice will disappear completely, but its place and role in Los Angeles media world will be changing. But we’ll get to that later.
First, we want to thank everyone who has become involved with this paper from the beginning through today—from early advertisers taking a risk on the new Silver Lake Press, to the writers, photographers, artists and friends who helped us grow into the L.A. Alternative Press and finally the weekly L.A. Alternative last November. Most of all, we want to express our true gratitude to the tens of thousands of loyal readers we’ve gathered along the way, readers who’ve stuck with us through our many shifts, growing pains and learning curves. The greatest part of this endeavor has been sharing our irreverent, and often irregular, take on this crazy city with all of you. We hope you’ve enjoyed us being your coffee-shop companion, waiting room entertainer, friend in-the-know and, yes, even your bathroom buddy. We have. We thank you, and hope you’ll continue to seek out our company during this, our most ambitious change yet (we’ll get there, we promise).
But before we can, we have to explain that discontinuing the print edition of L.A. Alternative is not an easy choice—maintaining an independent publication in today’s Los Angeles is now a near impossibility. It has become apparent in the four and a half years since Silver Lake Press launched that it takes deep pockets to compete against the other corporate newspapers in the city. We know that our problem has never been attracting loyal readers, but the cutthroat competition with our rivals has made it harder to get and keep new advertisers. The fact that we lasted this long is still a feat. In fact, it’s a real testament to the authentic voice we’ve all created together—turning a small, family-run upstart paper into a leading voice in Los Angeles.
The fact is, while print media will always be valued, newspaper publishing is hitting rough waters. The continued conglomeration of media companies such as Village Voice Media and the ongoing troubles at our own Los Angeles Times are the initial rumblings of print losing out to the Internet. As the web continues to grow as an egalitarian, and utilitarian, method of reaching readers, this may just be the right time to make the switch.
Which brings us to the upside of all this down: When the final copy of this week’s issue disappears from newsstands, sidewalks, back steps and storefronts citywide, the L.A. Alternative will then and forever exist exclusively online. Beginning today, the majority of our writers, columnists, photographers and staff will continue to contribute to laalternative.com, lending the same signature tone, talent and take on L.A. to what we hope to become this city’s premier online source for local news, art, music, food, entertainment and culture.
We are hoping to be successful groundbreakers in an area where other publications nationwide have been stumbling. For the better part of October we will be experimenting with how to uniquely meld print aesthetics with web design, editorial judgment with blogging speed, and our written style with other multimedia avenues. It’s both an exciting and frightening time for all of us, and we look forward to testing the seemingly nonexistent limits of the World Wide Web together.
Of course, we believe there will always be a place for print, in this city and elsewhere. That place is just too damn expensive for most of us. It is because of that, as well as in spite of it, that we declare loudly—with both a raised fist and a hung head:
Print Is Dead.
