Two rival Edmonton alternative weeklies, See and Vue, are merging. This is a big deal. From The Edmonton Journal:
The unpleasantness had begun in the mid-1990s. At that time, the father of the Edmonton alternative weekly, Ron Garth, owned the notquite-successful See. Then, all of a sudden, he didn’t own it. Stung by the deception, he opened a nearidentical competitor called Vue. When See was purchased by Great West Newspapers, then a division of Hollinger, the forceful Garth, of the long grey ponytail, branded Vue as 100-per-cent independent.
“The entire existence of two papers was premised on a dispute,” said Bob Doull, who now owns both weeklies. “It was illogical. But I have nothing to do with the dispute.”
So Doull is ending it. Soon, there will be one alternative weekly in Edmonton: Vue.
The piece goes on to give a little bit of the background on alternative newsweeklies:
The idea of the alternative weekly originated with a feisty group of New Yorkers that included Norman Mailer. They launched the Village Voice in the 1950s as a counterpoint to the mainstream, corporate press in the capital of American media. Writers were younger, poorer and bolder than their peers at the establishment newspapers. They told stories differently, about the arts and anything else the big papers wouldn’t cover. Some of them were brilliant. The Voice was sometimes funny, sometimes academic, sometimes ridiculous, often filled with a revolutionary spirit. They helped inspire what is now known as “the ’60s.”
If I were in charge, I’d call the new paper Seevue, which is irreverent, playful, memorable and unique, and a random, nerdy pun on television’s coolest-ever submarine to boot. But that’s me. Anyway. It’s a good article. You should read it if you like papers like prairie dog and Planet S, our sister paper in Saskatoon. And since you’re reading this post, I assume you do.
