Happy 40th Anniversary, PW: Here's to Four Decades of Renegade Journalism
by Liz Spikol, philadelphiaweekly.com
May 4th 2011
The paper you now hold in your hands, PW, has been around for 40 years—more or
less. Like most media stories, it’s a bit more complicated than that. A
newspaper called the Welcomat was founded in 1971. According to the Library of
Congress, that publication ceased to exist in 1995, when it was transformed by
new ownership into Philadelphia Weekly. Years later, marketing gurus suggested
the name Philadelphia Weekly was too cumbersome, thus spurring an exquisitely
painful rebranding campaign that ended in the name PW.
No matter the changes, though, there is a through line in the paper’s history:
a renegade spirit and a determination to give voices to the voiceless.
That was an appropriate mission at the time of the Welcomat’s founding. The
’60s had been characterized by massive cultural change, a devastating war and
the tragedy of multiple assassinations. Poet Robert Lowell’s “tranquilized
fifties” were long gone, and women and minorities found themselves newly
emancipated. Journalists, too, found a new voice— rejecting “objective”
newspaper accounts in favor of personalized narratives with strong points of
view. Writers like Gay Talese, Jimmy Breslin and Hunter S. Thompson pioneered
this new approach, while establishment reporters like Bob Woodward and Carl
Bernstein employed investigative tactics and detective work to expose
corruption in government.
The Welcomat started humbly, as a far-too-bland community paper that seemed
disconnected from all the energy new journalism embodied. Within a few years,
though, it found its voice: scrappy, irritable, unafraid. No one could ever say
the Welcomat resisted pissing people off; no subjects were off limits. Susan
Seiderman, who inherited the paper from her father, respected the independence
of “her” editors, even if she disagreed with them. She loved it when the paper
made noise; she was a noisy, fiery person herself.
And she was rewarded. Center City residents were deeply attuned to the
Welcomat’s content, in part because they helped create it. Very few article
submissions were turned down: If a resident of the city had something they
burned to say, they could say it. At the same time, individual voices were
cultivated in a way that would become an alt-weekly staple. Jim Knipfel’s
searingly revealing first-person column “Slackjaw” covered his experiences with
mental illness and related misery, and served as inspiration for later
self-flagellating personal-disclosure columnists (like yours truly).
In keeping with the times, the Welcomat featured frequent ruminations on
gender, race and class issues, including Thom Nickels’ regular column on gay
issues—one of the first of its kind in the country. The late writer John
Guinther tenaciously pursued injustice in the pages of the Welcomat, getting
three innocent men off of death row. Many other columnists, reporters and what
we now call citizen journalists were also nurtured by the Welcomat.
In 1995, new ownership began the process of transforming the Welcomat into an
alternative weekly along the lines of The Village Voice. The transition between
the two identities was a rocky one. New publisher Michael Cohen wanted to
change every aspect of the publication, and indeed, the transformation he
implemented made the paper extremely profitable. The paper that had been folded
and thrown onto Philly’s stoops was now printed flat, Daily News-style and
placed that way into honor boxes across the city. Tim Whitaker and Sara Kelly
took over as the pub’s top editors, and began to develop the point of view that
characterized it in the years to come: speaking truth to power; telling the
stories that wouldn’t otherwise be told; revealing the city’s singularity;
voraciously covering arts and music; and honing a left-of-center point of view
regarding politics and business as usual.
In the process, the paper became an essential translator of the city’s text,
with opinionated columns, news briefs, cover stories, arts reviews and
listings. If a visitor wanted to understand what Philadelphia was all
about—really—they could pick up an issue of Philadelphia Weekly and get the
idea. Writers were encouraged to do long-form journalism and burrow into an
important, overlooked issue until change took place. People who could write,
not just report, were nurtured. There was infinite flexibility when the paper
was large; as an editor, the space was a gift. Seem like a weird idea to have
moneyed Republican WASP City Councilman Thacher Longstreth—he of the bow tie
and argyle socks—give advice in an alt weekly? Then let’s do it!
PW made space for just about anything readers might enjoy, no matter how
outlandish.
The paper won award after award for writing, photography, design, even
headlines. Candidates longed for a PW endorsement; restaurants and theaters
cringed at bad reviews. Communities that had been ignored for years by local
government were attended to quickly after a story in PW’s pages; and
individuals got their day in court far more quickly than they’d anticipated. PW
got people out of jail. PW put people into jail. PW advocated and won. PW
advocated and lost. At the end of the day, PW was an essential square of fabric
in the city’s vast quilt-in-progress.
The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, which is the governing body of
North America’s alt weeklies, describes the mission this way: “What ties [AAN
member papers] together are a strong focus on local news, culture and the arts;
an informal and sometimes profane style; an emphasis on point-of-view reporting
and narrative journalism; a tolerance for individual freedoms and social
differences; and an eagerness to report on issues and communities that many
mainstream media outlets ignore.”
This is precisely what Philadelphia Weekly has been devoted to since 1995.
On the following pages of our anniversary issue, you’ll hear from some of the
staffers and freelancers who determined the paper’s direction over the years.
Literally hundreds of people have been employed by PW (and its parent company,
Review Publishing). We reached out to an eclectic group, but admittedly missed
the great majority.
In 2011, PW remains an independently owned alternative newsweekly. It’s been a
remarkable journey. Happy anniversary!
Some of what you can find inside this issue:
Q&As: Go back in time with the paper's former top editors, including Dan
Rottenberg, Tim Whitaker and Sara Kelly.
Doing His Own(er) Thing: An interview with the man in charge, Anthony Clifton.
Memory Lane: Take a stroll with some of PW's former staffers.
Paper Tales: Former Staff Writer Steve Volk looks back on the paper he loved.
Original Page:
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news-and-opinion/Heres-to-Four-Decades-of-Renegade-Journalism.html
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