AAN Association of Alternative Newsmedia

Charleston, S.C., Daily Embarks on Distribution Scheme

By AAN Staff

august 15, 2007 02:07 pm

Evening Post Publishing, parent of the daily Post and Courier, has offered cash to at least 50 local retailers and restaurants to replace the various newspaper racks in their establishments with single multi-publication boxes, Charleston City Paper reports. The Evening Post would then turn around and charge the city's free publications for space in the new boxes. City Paper publisher Noel Mermer says the alt-weekly will not be involved in this distribution "partnership." "The City Paper cannot and will not pay the Post and Courier for the relationship that we have built with local businesses over the years," Mermer says. The situation in Charleston is similar to ones increasingly faced by alt-weeklies in other markets, such as Jackson, Miss., where the Jackson Free Press and the publishers of other publications developed the Mississippi Independent Publisher's Alliance and distributed their own consolidated boxes.

View full article at Charleston City Paper