OC Weekly,which just a few years ago brought an edgy, often controversial style to the staid Orange County newspaper scene,is raising eyebrows again by bucking the downturn better than many publications.
Advertising revenue at OC Weekly was flat through the first eight months of the year,a time when many publishers were reporting large declines.
And ad revenue has “dipped” since Sept. 11. Yet the Weekly’s recent “2001 Best of OC” issue,traditionally its largest of the year,weighed in at 184 pages and was chock full of full-page ads from local businesses ranging from The Irvine Company to Flare for Women retail store in Costa Mesa.
But Michael Sigman, president of the OC Weekly and LA Weekly, said that the issue actually was smaller than last year’s 204-page “Best of” behemoth. The 10% falloff still puts the Weekly ahead of many publications, though.
Dow Jones Inc., for one, recently warned that ad volume at the Wall Street Journal stands to be off 35% to 45% for the fourth quarter. Locally, the advertising slump this month prompted Santa Ana-based Orange County Register to eliminate 105 positions, about 5% of its workforce.
Sigman said his free paper, which shares ads with its sister publication, LA Weekly, has been able to fend off a big downturn in ad spending by large national companies with a “spurt in local advertising revenues.”
About 85% of the paper’s revenue comes from local advertising, while 15% is derived from national ads, Sigman said.
OC restaurants and retails stores, ranging from hair salons, to bicycle shops and apparel shops, have continued to advertise in the Weekly, he said.
“Those areas have increased steadily since we started the paper,” Sigman said. “The growth mode hasn’t abated locally, even though we’ve been hit, like everyone else, with nationals.”
Still, Sigman said the OC Weekly and LA Weekly, which are both owned by New York-based Village Voice Media Inc., are in a “very challenging period,” much like everyone else.
“I don’t want to sit here and say everything is great, because it’s not,” he said.
The LA Weekly, which has been around for more than 20 years, is taking the brunt of the downturn, according to Sigman. But LA Weekly is not alone.
Richard Karpel, executive director of Washington, D.C.-based Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, a trade organization for the alternative newspaper business, said papers in major markets such as Los Angeles and Chicago,which tend to benefit most from national ads,generally have been hardest hit. He said national advertising on average is down 50% at alternative newspapers.
“The papers in the major markets tend to be older, more mature therefore their growth rate have stabilized compared to some of the newer papers,” Karpel said. “I think OC Weekly would be in (the latter) category.” Younger papers, which may have been seeing double-digit growth as they worked to penetrate their markets, have more wiggle room in tight times, he added.
The OC Weekly, a free publication that circulates to 70,000 readers, fits that profile.
It has been around for six years and averages 108 to 112 pages per issue, vs. the LA Weekly, which is more than 20 years old and averages more than 200 pages per issue, according to Sigman.
“For LA Weekly to keep getting bigger is more of a challenge than it is for OC, which is still in a young, high-growth mode,” Sigman said.
He added that OC Weekly was launched using LA Weekly as a springboard, which saved the new paper from initial losses.
But OC Weekly ultimately gained ground because it continues to attract advertisers.
One reason: “It’s different than anything else you can read in OC,” Sigman said.
The paper targets the 18- to 34-year-old age group, a segment not well penetrated by dailies and other publications. The Weekly is known for cheeky, offbeat stories, gossipy headlines, provocative, often lurid, advertisements and in-your-face, anti-establishment politics.
Probably the biggest driver for the OC Weekly is it’s “to do” listings, which range from live music, to hot nightclubs and trendy restaurants, Sigman said. Club and music advertising are the paper’s biggest money-makers, he added.
“It has a certain kind of credibility when it comes to that stuff that probably no other publication has,” Sigman said.
The paper’s music coverage is partly what draws advertiser Cox Communications Inc. in Rancho Santa Margarita. The Atlanta-based cable operator promotes its digital cable music services, with its Music Choice program, 45 channels of commercial free music.
“(OC Weekly is) definitely going to hit a younger crowd that is going to be interested in that,” said Nancy Quarles, Cox marketing communications supervisor.
Cox also advertises its sports programming and uses OC Weekly’s adult classified section to promote its pay-per-view services, which she called cost-effective for the money.
Meanwhile, Flare for Women, an edgy women’s clothing store in Costa Mesa, uses the OC Weekly to target its main clientele, according to owner Joellen Canizaro.
“The women who shop here are more fashion forward,” Canizaro said. “They’re a little bit more daring, so I think they would be more likely to read the OC Weekly.”
She said responses to her ads largely depend on their size and what she is willing to invest. OC Weekly’s one-time rates run from $295 for a 1/8 page to $2,089 for a full page.
“Since we’ve just bumped up to a full page, we’ve gotten a ton of response,” she added.
For businesses looking to hit a targeted audience of younger people it makes more sense to turn to an alternative paper vs. a daily paper, according to Karpel.
“(A daily paper has a) broader reach but your message is going to get out to a lot of people you don’t necessarily want it to get to and you’re going to pay for that,” he said.
But advertising in an alternative paper isn’t for everybody, said Cathy Sosa, media director at DGWB Advertising in Santa Ana, who typically doesn’t have a lot of clients in the OC Weekly.
“You really need to drill down and try to not only define your audience from a demographic standpoint but also psychographically,” she said. “You need to know their mindset.”
Sosa said she would place a “very distinct” client into the OC Weekly “just because of the mentality that I perceive of the people who read the paper,” who tend to be more hip, on the edge of music and clubs.
In the past, she’s helped Buena Park-based Yamaha Corporation of America, a maker of pianos and consumer electronics, place an ad in the OC Weekly.
But she said it’s not appropriate for her current advertising clients. Some are going after a “straighter, more sophisticated audience” and others want more of a mass reach, she added. n
