Opening seen for new alternative to take on LA Weekly. (Up Front).

Despite the demise of New Times Los Angeles, there still may be room in town for two alternative weeklies.

Those familiar with the industry believe that the death of the six-year-old newspaper doesn't necessarily mean the entrenched LA Weekly needs to be the only game in town. L.A. is big enough to support two alternative papers. But any upstarts need to know their place -- that they'll probably remain the No. 2 paper in town -- a place that still can be profitable.

"L.A. can support two weeklies, it can support four weeklies. It comes down to tight fiscal management' said Charles Gerencser, a former New Times Los Angeles publisher who now heads up the recently launched San Diego City-Beat. "One of the things we got wrong was trying to cover too much of the L.A. market?"

Richard Karpel, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, said New Times was facing an uphill battle from the start, one that only got worse with the onset of a deep advertising slump two years ago.

"There isn't room for two big ones. There's room for one big one and a smaller one," Karpel said. "When you're marginal, you have a more difficult time making it through a tough stretch where the economy is bad and advertisers are falling away."

Six-year-old New Times was shut down in October by Phoenix-based New Times Media in a deal that called for Weekly-owner Village Voice Media LLC to close its alternative paper in Cleveland. The Los Angeles Times has reported that Village Voice also paid New Times $8 million.

The unusual quid pro quo has triggered a U.S. Department of Justice probe into possible antitrust violations by the two companies, and howls of protest from those who believe that an important alternative voice has been muzzled.

Less examined is whether the local advertising market can support two alternative weeklies with broad reach.

In a memo to employees, New Times Executive Editor Michael Lacey said his company gave Los Angeles its best shot and failed. "New Times has invested tens of millions of dollars in our attempt to catch the LA Weekly" he said, "but their 18-year head start proved unassailable."

Product of mergers

New Times debuted in Los Angeles in 1996 when the company purchased the Los Angeles Reader and merged it with Los Angeles View, a smaller weekly acquired earlie. At the time of its demise, New Times had a circulation of 110,000. The Weekly's circulation is 220,000.

Alex Ben Block, executive director of the Los Angeles Press Club, believes New Times made numerous missteps with its business strategy in Los Angeles. The paper, he said, focused its sales efforts on getting big advertisers to sign on to the New Times national network. "The plan was to get chain ads. They didn't have much of a local sales staff," Block said.

New Times officials did not return calls seeking comment.

Gerencser, who was interviewed by Department of Justice investigators regarding the New Times deal, disputes Block's take, saying the paper's problem was that it overextended its reach locally.

"Look at our sister paper, (the Pasadena Weekly) -- we've got 40,000 papers in that area and our ads work incredibly well," he said. "When you've got a circulation that's expanding but not increasing, you thin your effectiveness in areas where you had critical mass. The ads don't work as well."

John Morrison, sales director of the Alternative Weekly Network, which places national ads in newspapers nationwide, said San Francisco and San Diego are among the cities supporting two or more alternative weeklies -- although in those and other cases one paper dominates the market.

In markets with more than one weekly, most advertisers pick one, knowing that the two papers often share readership, he said.

"Los Angeles is a large market and if there's any place where two papers could coexist and make a profit it's there," Morrison said. "But the second paper has to have more modest expectations."

That's a view shared by Jim Kaplan, a former classified advertising manager at both New Times and the Weekly who plans to launch a new community paper, the biweekly Studio City Sun,. starting Dec. 6.

Kaplan, who worked at the Weekly for a little more than a month in 2001 before being fired, said part of New Times' problem was that it ignored its core audience of readers over 35.

"They were marketing to 18-35 year olds. The reality is 18-35 year olds don't read the alternatives anymore. The readership is more like 35-55," said Kaplan.

New Times had a strategy of offering bargain rates in an attempt to make up ground with the larger Weekly. But that was a strategy that led to huge losses.

For advertisers like Armin Solami, manager of 323 Wireless on Vermont Avenue, that was a good deal. "I was disappointed when the New Times closed, it worked well for us," said Solami, who had been spending $100 a week for an eighth of a page in the N~w Times classifieds. "The price for that ad in the Weekly is $475."

Solami's ad has been transferred to The Weekly at the old New Times price as part of a two-month introductory offer. "If they raise our rate I'm not sure I'm going to stay with them. It's not worth it," he said.

RELEATED ARTICLE: LA Weekly

Founded: 1978

Owner: Village Voice Media LLC

Publisher: Beth Sestanovich

Editor: Laurie Ochoa

Content News, arts, entertainment, opinion and calendar listings

Price: Free

Circulation: 220,000 throughout L.A. County

Annual Sales Revenue: $25 million *

* estimated