Interesting story by Jeff Prince in the Fort Worth Weekly about the sometimes uneasy relationship between alternative weekly newspapers and the adult entertainment ads that often appear in the back. How alternative weeklies balance their desire for increased respectability in towns where they are often the only alternative to a monopoly daily with their fondness for the easy green adult entertainment ads bring in is certainly a fascinating topic, but Prince reaches for a trend.

He writes:

The alternative news industry is in the midst of change — an evolution rather than a revolution. In some cities, papers are cutting back on raunchy ads. In other places, publishers continue to enlarge their red-light sections.

OK, so red-light advertising is either increasing or decreasing, depending on the paper. Talk about a news flash!

Here’s the real scoop:

The Internet offers advertisers near-boundless freedom and accessibility, an advantage that more sex workers are discovering each week. Add it all up, and the future of dirty ads in alternative newsweeklies appears less rosy than most of the cheeks that appear in these pages.

I think that’s right. Whether it’s sex chat, exotic dancing or prostitution, anyone can advertise in a much more explicit and uncensored fashion on the Web and at a much cheaper cost. The only hard part might be whether your site can be found amid all the sex-related material online.

But as alt-weeklies look to provide a more serious option for news consumers frustrated by one-horse towns, they will probably look to either tame or trim the amount of sex advertising they carry in a bid for respectability. And the truth is, we may be reaching that elusive tipping point where many sex workers decide, “Hey, I don’t need this paper to make money.”

That said, when a medium for such otherwise difficult-to-find advertising is established, the
people who use it will seek it out repeatedly and thus make advertising in that space worthwhile on the margin.