"'Those People' Still Inhabit Cities, but the Local Alt-Weekly Is Rarely Their Voice"

"The same technology that’s created what Carr calls an informational ecosystem of micro-targeted online publications has also splintered the city scene itself. Thanks to social media, today a renegade urban beekeeper in Atlanta might feel more connected to the renegade urban beekeepers in Detroit than to her own city’s general-oddball population. And, of course, blogs make it harder for one writer to have the authority of a Christgau, but they open the door to many diverse voices instead.
"'It’s harder to be the voice of one larger community now that everybody can put up a blog post,' says Zankowski. But the larger urban community itself has become less cohesive. People will always identify with their cities, but the congregation of loosely affiliated urban tribes that alt-weeklies used to collect under one umbrella are now reaching out to each other across the globe instead."

Will Doig in Salon marks the decline of alternative weekly newspapers.