The following is an analysis of The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (AAN) (http://aan.org/alternative/Aan/index).
According to the Web site the AAN has, “a tolerance for individual freedoms and social differences; and an eagerness to report on issues and communities that many mainstream media outlets ignore.” From local news and culture to arts and narrative journalism, the AAN includes a variety of publications.
There is a link called newsweeklies that gives you a directory of all 130 weekly newspaper associations who are members of the AAN. The resource directory not only gives the weekly news in each state, when clicking on each specific paper you get information on each papers demographics, names of the staff members, press releases and AAN awards it has received.
The site also has a News Archives tab allows you to search by department, by specific AAN members and date up until 1998.
A web portal on the AAN Web site called AltWeeklies.com provides up-to-date news about “politics, crime, social issues, the environment, health, sex, food, film, music, art and books - all with a different perspective from what is generally found on wire-service and daily-newspaper Web sites.”
The association has high standards and screens perspective applications for membership, accepting 30% of the papers that apply for membership. The Web site has specific AAN bylaws that states the requirements and specific standards each association must meet in order to receive membership.
Overall I would rate this Web site a 3 out of 5. I think that the Web sites strict standards of membership are important because it ensures that the material is coming from a trusted and educated source. However, the Web sites layout could be improved because the links are very small and it seemingly takes longer to find your way around the site searching for information.
This is the first I've ever heard of a Web site that provides local and cultural news from newspapers in 41 states, as well as Canada. I agree that the strict requirements for membership is important, because it does establish trust for the site and its viewers. However, I'm not sure if the 30 percent acceptance rate is fair or not. The Web site sort of looks like a blog, but the site itself is unique. It could be interesting to learn the news of other small towns.
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