George Flynn at the Houston Press is celebrating the 15-year anniversary of the weekly publication:
In November 1989, a scrawny, 48-page tabloid took to the streets of the city, looking for a fight.
The new Houston Press was trying to prove that — despite the many publications that had perished before it — an alternative newspaper could be a success.
Okay, so this isn’t November 2004 and they missed their anniversary by a few months, but good for them.
Surprisingly, he includes this tidbit in the celebration:
Late that year, founding owner Morgan sold the Press to the Phoenix-based New Times chain of alternative newsweeklies, which had purchased the Dallas Observer two years earlier. In 1998, New Times also bought the assets of the venerable, on-again, off-again Public News weekly and closed it.
That was a sign that the business of “alternative” journalism might displace aggressive alternative print journalism. And that’s really too bad, as the sometimes psychedelic Public News put out some good writing (just as the Houston Post did before Hearst shut it down).
Still, kudos to the Press, for sticking it out 15 years plus. We’d urge the current editorial leadership to look back over some of those past issues — especially the ones with material from the sorely missed Tim Fleck — and maybe try to recapture a bit of the renegade journalism of the past. Houston could definitely use more of it.
