Boston’s Weekly Dig serves WoMag a knockout punch
So by now I’m sure most of you who live in Worcester have seen WoMag’s phonebook size 30th anniversary issue which dropped yesterday. What you might not have seen unless you’re the kind of person who trolls industry sites is the first round knock out landed by Boston’s Weekly Dig via The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies after WoMag publisher Diane Lieberman made what reads as a light hearted joke about the size of the Dig’s 5 year anniversary issue, in a press release.
“According to my records, no other American alt-weekly in history has ever crossed the three-figure threshold,” said Jeff Lawrence, founder and president of Boston’s alternative paper Weekly Dig, which just celebrated the publication of its biggest issue ever at 124 pages.
“Did he reach 124 pages? How cute,” commented Worcester Magazine Publisher Diane Lieberman. “Not quite as big as ours, but c’est la vie.”
Well the Dig responded with a beautiful rebuttal that can not be done justice without a full reprint, so here goes.
Posted October 27, 2006
Boston’s Weekly Dig Celebrate Being in Boston, Not WorcesterSource: Weekly Dig Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Jeff Lawrence
Phone: (617) 426-8942
Fax: (617) 426-8944
Jeff@weeklydig.comBOSTON–The staff of Boston’s Weekly Dig, having recently been mocked on the Web site of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies by the publisher of Worcester Magazine, announced today that they still live in Boston, as opposed to Worcester.
“Sure, it’s true that WoMag’s ‘Best of … ‘ issue was 12 pages bigger than ours,” said Dig Publisher Chris Rohland, “But the pain of that is easily trumped by the fact that we still live in one of the great American cities, and they’re still in Worcester.”
The offending press release, which appeared at AAN.org on October 26, mocked Dig President Jeff Lawrence’s contention that the most recent issue, which clocked in at 124 pages, was the first alt-paper ever to reach three figures.
“Did he reach 124 pages? How cute,” said Worcester Magazine Publisher Diane Lieberman. “Not quite as big as ours, but c’est la vie.”
“No question, a 136-page issue would have been sweet,” responded Editor Joe Keohane, noting that if one were to count the stand-alone Belgian Beer Festival Guide the Dig put out, that would have brought the week’s total to 148 pages. “But, then again we’re still in Boston, and they’re still in Worcester.”
Dig President, Jeff Lawrence, could not be reached for comment, but was last seen eating lobster and drinking a Harpoon IPA while walking along Boston’s historic Freedom Trail.
The Dig always puts out some of the best Press Releases, but this one from back in May is still my favorite.
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19 Responses to “Boston’s Weekly Dig serves WoMag a knockout punch”
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The real shame here is that, with the anniversary edition, WoMag essentially gave up on their website and just posted a PDF. Happy 30th, let’s party like it’s 1995.
But Mike, it was the largest PDF in the history of American Alternative Newsweeklies!
You know, I’m still looking for my Greek-speaking, fully operational post-op they assumed I would have no trouble finding. Perhaps in the Womag…
Sorry Linnea, Chris Kanaracus left WoMag some time back; try the Fitchburg Sentinel.
Haha what ever did happen to Kanaracus?
I met him once at a poker game, and then after a vicious tongue lashing by some right-wing conservatives, he disappeared!
The funny part is that no matter how many pages either one of them print, their print business model(s) are quickly becoming more and more irrelevant.
Define relevant Pete?
In the Long Tail sense. Fewer and fewer people are reading entertainment and culture news, opinions, etc in print. They are getting this info online, through blogs, youtube, myspace, etc. So, as they have dick-measuring contests, their audience is going elsewhere and their business model is being shot to hell by the web. Now is the little lull before the storm. Local businesses will start to figure out how to reach their customers online. Then, paying $1,000 for an ad only your employees and friends read, will seem pretty silly.
So comparing the two (WoMag and the Dig) is starting with a false premise. Where WoMag has no obvious end game for the weakening value in high ticket print advertising, the dig fits your description of a long tail presence better than any isolated blog, youtube or myspace. They know their demographic and they cater to their needs, made obvious through a skyrocketing circulation and online readership. Hey, maybe your right and paper is on the way out the door, personally I think we can do much better even on the e-delivery side of things as well. But I consume more media on a daily basis than most people I know, it’s literally an all day affair for me and the one thing that remains obvious is the weakness is never in the medium but the lack in understanding a given market. I don’t disagree with your position so much as believe it to be self limiting in scope. Whether I read the Dig (or any other historically print publication) online or in print on the T it’s the consistent, reliable content that keeps me going back to them as a source; not the medium. In contrast, I have missed absolutely nothing in terms of local happenings from not having a myspace account because the content is abysmal. I can see how from your perspective as an agent of the advertiser the online marketing space only makes sense, it’s cost effective and targeting a specific niche couldn’t be easier. But as a consumer, I’m not shopping for ad’s I’m shopping for content. So the still unresolved issue with the citizen journalist model is the lack of copy editors (I’m the best example of that), fact checkers, skill and reliable access to constant 1st person sources. Some (maybe most?) print publications will die off as that hierarchy moves online through consolidation of like minded individuals, some will adapt; but the fact remains that content is, and will always be the driving force.
Tom, CK is still around. He works the editorial desk for the Fitchburg Sentinel. Just a slight change in priorities for Worcesters favorite greek pre-op.
Hey Pete, I meant to throw this in the last comment. Check this 2003 Dan Savage interview with Media Bistro. Sums up what may be my flawed view of the future of print pretty well.
http://www.mediabistro.com/articles/cache/a842.asp
I hear ya. I’ll trust your opinion on whether they appeal to their readers and whether that’s a growing or shrinking demo. I don’t read WOMAG or Dig (or any paper regularly), so I am not picking on either one of them. And wouldn’t be qualified to comment on the quality of their content.
My point is that the economics of printing and distribution just won’t compete with online media when online advertising becomes a viable alternative to print ads for local businesses.
I agree with you about the quality of the content. The quality of content produced by amateurs/users/consumers (whatever you want to call it) is no where near the quality of most print publications. And publications write for an audience, whereas most amateurs that are publishing online write for their own edifications (present company hardly excluded). But, the delivery mechanism for people that our age and younger is no longer print. It’s the web. And eventually, WOMAG (and other papers) will figure out how to deliver their content to us via the web. But, as they do, they’ll have to sell ads against many more competitors than they are used to. And their cost structures won’t be supported unless they make significant changes to their production methods and advertising sales approaches.
But, I know that you know all this. I am sure they are still trying to follow the conversation, though.
Have you read “The Long Tail” yet? I resisted for awhile because it was a bit too fashionable. But, it’s a good read. Strings a lot of good points together in a cohesive direction for the future of media.
I haven’t read the finished product, I still remember the light bulb moment when I read the initial WIRED piece from 2004 and followed the blog through the book development… but I have a huge backlog of books I need to tear through and have put the Amazon account on hiatus.
What Diane at WoMag said wasn’t very nice, but she was attacking a business competitor. The Dig didn’t have to make a personal attack against an entire city in their own state. Ouch.
Hey kids, Joe Keohane here, from the Dig. Just wanted to clarify something Dale said.
1. WoMag and us aren’t competitors at all.
2. Mike Warshaw, WoMag’s editor is a very good friend of mine, and our two papers have always had a good relationship. We just fuck with each other is all.
3. Worcester sucks. I’ve been there.
Thanks for checking in Joe. My sincerest apologies to Warshaw who seems confused as to whether or not I, or anybody for that matter, realized this was a joke. Yes, I get it; as does anyone with communicating hemispheres of gray matter. When playing the dozens publicly, there is a winner and a looser and sometimes it’s fun to point that out.
Tom,
I won EVERY argument with the neocon krew over at Wormtown Nightlife. No contest ever.
And I am alive, well and fabulously handsome.
Well that’s good to hear!
PS: NOBODY wins against the whackos over at WNL because we’re all stupid and all we ever think about are gays and aborting fetuses.
What is it about Worcester that makes people so relentlessly nostalgic?! WoMag has basically become the T&G for Baby Boomers with its relentless retrospectives: “news= the way things used to be.”
Meanwhile, lots of stuff going on in remote corners of 21st Century Worcester goes unreported.