Finding value in publications others left behind
At a time when many investors view alternative weeklies as remnants of a fading media era, Brady Walkinshaw sees beloved local institutions waiting to be rebuilt. Through Noisy Creek, he is assembling a network that began with The Stranger in Seattle and the Portland Mercury and now extends into Chicago and Memphis, with work underway in Anchorage and Montana.
Walkinshaw’s interest is deeply personal. “I grew up reading The Stranger,” he told E&P. For a young person living outside Seattle, the alternative weekly offered more than news. “It helped me figure out what to do. It helped me figure out who to date.”
Alternative weeklies once exercised considerable influence over local politics, music, dining, arts and culture. Many later suffered from declining advertising, changing media habits and the pandemic’s devastating effect on local events and street distribution. Walkinshaw believes their underlying value survived those disruptions.
“These papers still are beloved,” he said. “Communities love these things, these free-distribution weeklies that are on the streets.” His central bet is that a new business structure can restore publications that still possess recognizable brands, loyal audiences and authentic community relationships.
“What I believe is that they’re more relevant today than they’ve ever been,” Walkinshaw said. Noisy Creek is working to place a modern media business behind publications “that communities have loved and trusted for decades.”
Betting that the future will be more analog
Walkinshaw believes print may become more valuable as artificial intelligence, social platforms and other technologies occupy more of daily life. Older readers remember when alternative weeklies helped define their cities. Younger people, he argues, are developing nostalgia for tangible media and shared experiences they never fully had.
“I think about these papers actually as the real social media,” Walkinshaw said. Rather than keeping people isolated behind screens, a local publication can encourage them to visit coffee shops, attend performances, discover restaurants and participate in civic life. “These are papers that make you social. You’re out there reading them in a coffee shop, flipping through them.”
Alternative weeklies also offered curation before social-media influencers assumed that role. “They were the cool, hip friend who was in the know,” Walkinshaw said. “They told you who to vote for. They told you what the cool thing was happening down the street or the new restaurant opening.”
That identity requires a distinctive editorial voice. Noisy Creek does not intend to eliminate the provocation and irreverence that helped make these publications influential. “You need this edginess,” Walkinshaw said.
His strategy also depends on serious reporting. “I do think people are craving really solid local news reporting,” he said. Walkinshaw believes the strongest editorial mix combines dependable local journalism with arts, culture, politics and practical guidance about experiencing a community.
Creating scale without erasing local identity
Noisy Creek must provide the efficiencies of a larger network without stripping away the individuality that gives each publication its value. Walkinshaw describes the company’s approach as a “publisher-led model,” with local leaders responsible for their markets and financial performance.
“Editorial is kept totally independent and totally local,” he said. “Publishers: totally independent, totally local.” Meanwhile, Noisy Creek can centralize technology, product development, human resources and finance while pursuing some advertising opportunities across markets.
Walkinshaw believes the decline of print has created unexpected scarcity. “There’s actually not that much cool, good print inventory anymore,” he said. A national advertiser might value a locally designed back-page advertisement distributed through hundreds of coffee shops because “brands are searching for authentic connection.”
Some successful editorial products can also be shared and adapted among markets, including Best Of editions, endorsement guides, surveys and personals. “I think there’s a demand for that again,” Walkinshaw said of the personals and missed-connections columns that once helped define alternative publications.
Building a broader business behind the journalism
Advertising remains Noisy Creek’s primary revenue source, but Walkinshaw sees diversification as essential. “I think that the diversification into other areas is what’s gonna make this really succeed,” he said.
The company’s expanding business includes live events, podcasting, event discovery and ticketing. It distributes and produces Dan Savage’s Savage Lovecast and recently launched Noise Complaint, a music-discovery podcast featuring bands performing live sets in Noisy Creek’s offices.
Noisy Creek also moved several hundred thousand tickets through its ticketing platform last year. Walkinshaw wants to create “a much more ethical ticketing platform” that returns greater value to audiences, artists and venues.
The company’s most ambitious revival may be the Anchorage Press, which stopped publishing several years ago. Noisy Creek is working with local entrepreneurs to bring it back. Walkinshaw acknowledges that some publications may be beyond recovery, but he believes others retain the audience, advertising relationships and community standing needed for renewal.
“Our belief is that we can bring these brands into the next century and build out a really savvy, smart digital media company behind them, but that still leans into print,” he said.
The ultimate test will be the journalism. “A stellar editorial product is what the success of this company will ride upon,” Walkinshaw said. His wager is straightforward but contrarian: “I think the future is much more analog than either the market thinks right now and that people think.”
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