Type Alternative weekly Publisher Susan Harper | Format Tabloid Founded April 1983 | |
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Owner(s) ZM INDY, Inc. dba Indy Week Editor Jeffrey Billman (interim) | ||
Indy Week, formerly known as the Independent Weekly and originally the North Carolina Independent, is a tabloid-format alternative weekly newspaper published in Durham, North Carolina, United States, and distributed throughout the Research Triangle area (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, and Cary) and counties (Wake County, Durham County, Orange County, and Chatham County). Its first issue was published in April 1983.
Contents
Indy Week is a member of the Association of Alternative Newsmedia and has a progressive, liberal political perspective. The Columbia Journalism Review has cited the newspaper for its "spine of steel." The print edition is published on Wednesdays.
History
The paper was founded in 1983 and was originally published as the North Carolina Independent and was bi-weekly. Its publisher was Carolina Independent Publications, Inc. It was renamed the Independent effective March 1985. In 1989, publication was changed to weekly, and the name altered to the Independent Weekly.
In September 2002, Carolina Independent Publications acquired the area's other major weekly, the Spectator, from Creative Loafing Inc. Founded in 1978 by Godfrey Cheshire III and others in Raleigh, the Spectator had been owned by Creative Loafing since 1997 and was well known for its coverage of the arts; the name lived on as the name of the Independent's calendar of events.
In 2010, the Independent presented the inaugural Hopscotch Music Festival in downtown Raleigh. The three-day annual event happens in September and features local, national and international bands in just about every genre.
On Sept. 27, 2012, the Independent Weekly was purchased by ZM INDY, Inc., whose owners, Mark Zusman and Richard Meeker, also own Willamette Week. The name of the newspaper and website was changed to Indy Week.
Awards
The paper's reporters have won several major awards, including the George Polk Award, the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award, the Green Eyeshade Award for the South's best journalism, the Baltimore Sun's H.L. Mencken Writing Award, and the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism.