SoHo Weekly News

The SoHo Weekly News was a weekly alternative newspaper founded by music publicist Michael Goldstein and published in New York City from 1973 to 1982. Positioned as a competitor to The Village Voice, it struggled financially. The paper was purchased by Associated Newspaper Group in 1979 and shut down three years later when AMG was unable to make it profitable. Many of the staff went on to have illustrious careers at other New York publications.

The paper was known for its coverage of the Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood, which at the time was just starting to become fashionable. Although the official editorial stance was anti-gentrification, there have been arguments made that its coverage of local culture and business actually contributed to the upward trend in property values. Coverage of emerging music acts in local venues was particularly strong, with the paper being particular well known for its early coverage of the Ramones.

Startup and operation
The SoHo Weekly News (SWN) was a weekly alternative newspaper published in New York City from 1973 to 1982. The paper was founded in 1973 by Michael Goldstein (1938–2018) who put out the first issue on October 11, 1973, using "his last $800" to fund operations. Initially published in eight pages, it eventually grew to over 100 pages and competed with The Village Voice. In SoHo: The Rise and Fall of an Artists's Colony, Richard Kostelanetz asserted that the SWN "was founded ... in part to exploit the success of the Voice, with a similar size and similarly weekly publication schedule". The paper's offices were at 111 Spring Street, Manhattan, although the earliest issues showed the address of Goldstein's apartment on the masthead. Circulation was reported as 25,000 – 30,000. One of the more unusual topics covered was a review of East Village drug merchants; the piece described various brands of heroin and cocaine that were available, their street names, and commented on the relative quality.

In January 1976, The New York Times reported that the SWN was the second largest English-language weekly in the city, was being positioned as a direct competitor of The Village Voice, and was sold at 400 newsstands. Goldstein described the intended audience as "basically the 22‐to‐35‐year old group, who grew up during the 60's going to rock concerts" but conceded that his market research consisted of seeing who was buying the paper at newsstands. Hank Weintraub, vice president of ad agency DienerHauser-Greenthal, stated that the paper's circulation and effectiveness were unproven and he would only place ads there when specifically requested by clients: "It has not proven itself to be a viable medium or the challenge to The Village Voice they say they are." At the time, the paper had two salesman but was looking to hire three more and double both circulation and ad revenue by the end of the year. Stephen M. Blacker, associate publisher of The Village Voice, commented that he didn't "see them as real competition."

The paper was an outspoken critic of the commercialization and gentrification of SoHo, the neighborhood where it was located and concentrated its coverage. In a 2003 review of the revitalization of the SoHo neighborhood, Stephen Petrus argued that despite taking an editorial stance opposing gentrification, the SWN actually promoted it, "showcasing the galleries, boutiques, and restaurants", eschewing a role as neighborhood watchdog in favor of competing directly with The Village Voice. He gave as an example "a two-part series for the 1973 holiday season, [in which] the Weekly News took readers on a tour of more than two dozen neighborhood shops." Petrus also noted their "extensive classified section, listing lofts for rent or sale" which helped drive up rents, pricing artists and other renters without long term leases out of the area.

In 1974, SWN inaugurated a Loft of the Week feature in which they highlighted opulent residences. The first installment covered the home of fashion designer Valerie Porr, which they described as "[one of the] most fascinating spaces in SoHo". The paper touted the advantages of converted lofts, writing, "Living in a loft gives you a whole new dimension in space and space relationships to work with"  Jim Stratton took a contrary stance. In response to a 1974 piece in New York Magazine which called SoHo "The Most Exciting Place to Live in the City", he lamented the influx of wealthy people who could "buy a loft in SoHo and send an artist to Brooklyn" and that when people came to artist's lofts, they were coming more to look at the real estate than the artwork.

Staff
Many SWN staff, 80 percent of whom were freelance in 1976, had notable careers before or after their association with the paper. The editorial team was led by founder Michael Goldstein who previously had been a successful music publicist. Among his clients were Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, and the Grateful Dead; 17 of the acts he represented were eventually inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Annie Flanders had been the fashion editor; very shortly after SWN closed, she organized a meeting of ex-staffers including Ronnie Cooke, Stephen Saban, Lesley Vinson, Megan Haungs, and Bill Cunningham to found Details magazine which ran from 1982 to 2015. Kim Hastreiter succeeded Annie Flanders as fashion editor; she and news reporter David Hershkovits went on to found Paper Magazine. Gerald Marzorati, art editor and Artful Dodger columnist, was reportedly the first journalist to write a major story about Keith Haring. Marzorati went on to work at The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, and eventually the New York Times, where he edited the New York Times Magazine.

The photography staff included Allan Tannenbaum, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Bruce Weber, and Bill Cunningham. Tannenbaum was known for his coverage of rock music, having photographed David Bowie, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and the Rolling Stones. Greenfield-Sanders has work on display at the Museum of Modern Art and the National Portrait Gallery, and was featured in American Master: The Boomer List on PBS. Weber's fashion photography was controversial for showing men clad only in underwear. Some of his earliest work in the SWN was described by the New York Times as "flagrantly erotic". He was famous for a 1983 billboard in Times Square showing Tom Hintnaus modelling Calvin Klein underwear; American Photographer featured the photo in 10 Pictures that Changed America, saying that Weber "made men the focal point of sexual attention; for the first time, they were sold as sexual objects", noting that the image appealed to both gay and heterosexual men as well as to women. Cunningham did a style feature, Bill Cunningham's Sunday, having been recruited by Annie Flanders. He then went on to a long career at the New York Times as a photojournalist producing his famous On the Street and Evening Hours columns.

Richard Kostelanetz noted that The Village Voice, had been "founded ... by people residing within Greenwich Village, initially to provide them with cultural information about their community" and contrasted this with the SWN, stating that it had been "founded ... by an outsider" and that "Though the offices of the SoHo News were on Broadway below Houston Street, nearly all of its editors lived outside SoHo; most of its writers probably did as well".

Music and arts coverage
The SWN was known for its coverage of new musical artists in downtown New York. In 1975, the SWN was one of the first papers to interview The Ramones. According to Bernard Gendron:

"A number of other groups followed Television's entry into CBGB's. The Ramones debuted in August 1974 as did Blondie [...] The local rock critic establishment—at the Village Voice and New York Times—was slow to respond to the goings-on at CBGB's and not enthusiastic when it first did. During the length of the first wave, the brunt of local support came from the alternative press, initially the SoHo Weekly News and later the fanzines Punk and New York Rocker."

In 1978, they ran an interview with Talking Heads. In their Video Lounge exhibit, the Museum of the City of New York noted the paper's leading role in covering the New York music scene:

"New York fostered musical innovation in its varied venues, and as a global media capital it also provided the infrastructure to spread its new sounds locally, nationally, and inter-nationally. Influential print journalism and music criticism could be found in the pages of local outlets like The SoHo Weekly News and the East Village Eye, along with others with a further reach such as the Village Voice and New York Rocker."Their arts coverage ranged from local talent to mainstream. One article on dance included a performance in a Mercer Street loft alongside one at the Metropolitan Opera House by the American Ballet Theater. SWN was also known for their coverage of local artists struggling to make a name for themselves; Gary Indiana wrote in Artforum: "There were plenty of artists of all types living there before this little boom thing in the mid-’80s. Most of the ones I knew never expected to have any type of commercial success. The biggest thing that ever happened to them was a mention in the Village Voice or the Soho Weekly News."

Incidents
On November 26, 1979, 27-year-old Manhattan resident Henry Benvenuti walked into the SWN office and asked to see art editor Gerald Marzorati. After being told he could not see Marzorati, Benvenuti took out a hatchet, stated that, "I'm doing this in the name of art," chopped off two of his fingers, and walked out of the office, leaving the fingers behind. Benvenuti and his severed fingers were taken to Bellevue Hospital but doctors were unable to reattach the fingers.

The paper's office was once bombed by a "leader of a radical organization" who was upset that his name had been misspelled in an article. The explosion injured two employees.

Decline and shutdown
In May 1978, the English Associated Newspaper Group (ANG), led by Vere Harmsworth, took a 25% share in the SWN. Reportedly, this was in response to Rupert Murdoch, which whom Harmsworth had been feuding, having bought The Village Voice the previous year. A year later, Goldstein stated that the paper had an annual revenue of $1.1 million and their circulation was 60,000; it was reported, however, that the paper was losing money. ANG bought out the remaining stake in 1979 and named John Leese as publisher and editor in chief. In the fall of 1981, ANG announced plans to close or sell the paper by February 1982. Although there were negotiations with possible purchasers, which continued beyond the original deadline, continuing losses ($1.7 million in the previous year) forced ANG to shut down the paper in March. The recent unionization of the paper was cited as a factor in the decision. The last issue, dated March 10–16, 1982, had 40,000 copies printed.

The day after the shutdown, the New York Times said the SWN had been "a weekly journal of counter-cultural news and opinion for New York City". Leese said the paper had lost $2 million in the previous year on operations with no prospects of making the paper profitable. Another spokesman put the total losses at $6 million. At the time of the shutdown, the staff numbered about 70 people, of which 25 were full-time reporters and editors. The next week, the Times reported in their national edition that despite growing circulation, the paper had needed to increase advertising by six pages per issue, which the owners did not believe was possible. Contributing to the downfall was a pending lawsuit by Susan Sontag which claimed that the SWN had violated her copyright when it printed a speech she had given about communism. John Leese was quoted as saying that attempts to sell the paper had been unsuccessful, even at a price described as "nominal".

A New York Times op-ed by SWN editor Tim Page published shortly after the paper folded called SWN the "alternative to alternative papers" and "a most interesting little paper: breezy, intelligent, witty, joyously Epicurean, wildly uneven". The paper's contributors were described as an eccentric mix of "neo-conservatives and Marxists, radical feminists and hedonistic libertines, chronic potheads and antidrug crusaders". Page described the poor physical condition of paper's office; a "plaster oven" in the summer, "drafty and underheated" in the winter, infested with "rats the size of dachshunds", and equipped with unreliable telephones and typewriters.