BEATROUTE MAGAZINE AND THE STATE OF ALTERNATIVE WEEKLIES

I had lunch last week with Glenn from BeatRoute Magazine, a free alternative weekly/monthly which launched in 2004, to discuss publishing in the Calgary market. An independent publication is a tough business especially against all that is conglomerated and digitalized. Now with the addition of 3 free transit dailies, it'll be interesting to see how BeatRoute continues to hold up against Calgary's long-standing Fast Forward Magazine and Canada's other alt weeklies.

This year's Print Measurement Bureau (PMB) numbers show Toronto's alt weeklies undergoing double digit percentage readership declines. Eye Weekly has lost 117,000 readers since 2004 and NOW has lost 66,000 in the same period. Montreal's VOIR is down 27,000. I'll have to confirm Fast Forward and Edmonton's See Magazine and Vue Weekly numbers but regardless, readership has become more difficult to maintain.

BeatRoute, on the other hand, has aggressive plans to increase distribution. The main difference between BeatRoute and the established alt weeklies is the target demo. BeatRoute focuses on the younger 16-24 year olds while Fast Forward's editorial has grown with its readers who are now 25-44. With the introduction and wide adoption of free transit dailies targeting the 18-54, Fast Forward and most other alt weeklies have been hit the hardest.

In Calgary, Fast Forward will continue to have the more affluent audience but I think BeatRoute has something better to offer against a harder-to-reach youth audience. We'll see.