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This article is about the North Carolina newspaper. For the Australian newspaper, seeThe Independent Weekly.
Indy Week
Independent Weeklystand in coffee shop on Hillsborough St, Raleigh NC
TypeAlternative weekly
FormatTabloid
Owner(s)ZM INDY, Inc.
PublisherJohn Hurld
FoundedApril 1983
LanguageEnglish
HeadquartersP.O. Box 1772Durham,NC27702
United States
Circulation25,000 (as of 2019)
ISSN0737-8254
Websiteindyweek

Indy Week,formerly known as theIndependent Weeklyand originally theNorth Carolina Independent,is atabloid-formatalternative weeklynewspaper published inDurham, North Carolina,United States, and distributed throughout theResearch Trianglearea (Raleigh,Durham,Chapel Hill,andCary) and counties (Wake County,Durham County,Orange County,andChatham County). Its first issue was published in April 1983.

Indy Weekis a member of theAssociation of Alternative Newsmedia[1]and has aprogressive,liberalpolitical perspective. TheColumbia Journalism Reviewhas cited the newspaper for its "spine of steel."[2]The print edition is published on Wednesdays.[1]

History

[edit]

The paper was founded in 1983 bySteve Scheweland was originally published as theNorth Carolina Independentand was bi-weekly. Its publisher wasCarolina Independent Publications, Inc.[3]It was renamed theIndependenteffective March 1985.[3]In April 1988 theIndependentpublished endorsements of state political candidates for the upcomingDemocratic Party's primary election. The paper admonished its readers not to vote for state senatorHarold Hardisonand in response a member of Hardison's campaign organization collected approximately 7,000 copies of the paper from newsstands in downtown Raleigh and dumped them in the trash.[4]TheIndependentidentified the person responsible and reported the story in its next edition. The story was reported by media across North Carolina, raising the newspaper's public profile.[5]In 1989, publication was changed to weekly, and the name altered to theIndependent Weekly.[3]

In September 2002, Carolina Independent Publications acquired the area's other major weekly, theSpectator,fromCreative Loafing Inc.[3]Founded in 1978 byGodfrey Cheshireand others inRaleigh,[6]theSpectatorhad been owned by Creative Loafing since 1997 and was well known for its coverage ofthe arts;the name lived on as the name of theIndependent'scalendar of events.[7]

In 2010, theIndependentpresented the inauguralHopscotch Music Festivalin downtownRaleigh.The three-day annual event happens in September and features local, national and international bands.

On September 27, 2012, theIndependent Weeklywas purchased by ZM INDY, Inc., whose owners,Mark Zusmanand Richard Meeker, also ownWillamette Week.[8]The name of the newspaper and website was changed toIndy Week.[9]

On June 11, 2020, Jeffrey Billman was fired from his position as Editor. The stated reason was that he had failed to follow up on a sexual misconduct tip regarding a local restaurant that had been brought to his attention in May 2019. Possibly prompting the dismissal, the edit and design staff released a letter stating their unwillingness to work for Billman going forward.[10] Jane Porter started as Editor-in-Chief in January 2021.

In 2023, the newspaper's owners entered a contract with The Assembly, a two-year-old digital newsmagazine focused on North Carolina, to help manage the Indy Week's business operations, with the option of acquiring it in the future.[11]

Awards

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The paper's reporters have won several major awards, including the George Polk Award,[12]the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award (finalist),[13]the Green Eyeshade Award for the South's best journalism (grand prize, 1993; second place, 2004, 2005 & 2019),[14][15][16]theBaltimore Sun's H.L. Mencken Writing Award,[17]and the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism.[18]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ab"Newsweekly Directory: Independent Weekly (NC)".Association of Alternative Newsmedia.RetrievedNovember 18,2012.
  2. ^Schoonmaker, Mary Ellen (November 1987)."Has the alternative press gone yuppie?".Columbia Journalism Review.26:60–64 – via EBSCOhost.
  3. ^abcd"Collection Number 05319: Independent Weekly Records, 1982-2004".Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library.University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.RetrievedNovember 18,2012.
  4. ^Milstein 1988,p. 8.
  5. ^Milstein 1988,p. 9.
  6. ^"Godfrey Cheshire Biography & Movie Reviews".RogerEbert.RetrievedNovember 19,2016.
  7. ^"Triangle publications Independent, Spectator to merge".Triangle Business Journal.
  8. ^Why Willamette Week bought Independent Weekly
  9. ^Meeker, Richard; Harper, Susan (October 3, 2012)."Welcome to the new Indy Week and indyweek".Independent Weekly/Indy Week.RetrievedNovember 18,2012.
  10. ^"A letter from @indyweek staff".Twitter.Retrieved2020-06-17.
  11. ^"The Assembly marks large partnership with Indy Week".Axios.Retrieved2024-05-30.
  12. ^"Past Winners [of the George Polk Awards, 1990] | LIU".liu.edu.Retrieved2019-01-25.
  13. ^"1998 IRE Award winners".IRE.Archived fromthe originalon 2019-01-26.Retrieved2019-01-25.
  14. ^"Three Times Publishing journalists win awards".Tampa Bay Times.Retrieved2024-05-30.
  15. ^"SPJ Announces the 2004 Green Eyeshade Award Recipients".spj.org.Retrieved2019-01-25.
  16. ^"SPJ Announces the 2005 Green Eyeshade Award Recipients".spj.org.Retrieved2019-01-25.
  17. ^Sun, Baltimore (November 14, 1992)."THE H.L. Mencken Writing Award this year [1992]".baltimoresun.Retrieved2019-01-25.
  18. ^Hart, Richard (2007-06-20)."Real winners".INDY Week.Retrieved2019-01-25.

Works cited

[edit]
  • Milstein, Michael (July 1988). "The Silver Volvo Newspaper Heist".Columbia Journalism Review.27(2): 8–10.
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