''Orlando Weekly'' is a
liberal progressive alternative newsweekly
An alternative newspaper is a type of newspaper that eschews comprehensive coverage of general news in favor of stylized reporting, opinionated reviews and columns, investigations into edgy topics and magazine-style feature stories highlighting l ...
distributed in the
Greater Orlando area of
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...
. Every Thursday, 40,000 issues of the paper are distributed to more than 1,100 locations across Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties.
''Orlando Weekly'' organizes an annual feature Best of Orlando issue that features the best Orlando has to offer in dining, music and nightlife, arts and culture, goods and services. Each year readers vote in the paper's poll to vote for their favorite Orlando restaurants, bars, boutiques, museums, local celebs and more. The paper also publishes an annual dining guide called ''BITE'', which features capsule reviews of hundreds of area restaurants, and an ''Annual Manual'', an insider's guide to the region.
History
The paper was founded in the 1980s as the ''Orange Shopper''. It was purchased by the ''
Toronto Sun
The ''Toronto Sun'' is an English-language tabloid newspaper published daily in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The newspaper is one of several ''Sun'' tabloids published by Postmedia Network. The newspaper's offices is located at Postmedia Place in ...
'', which changed its name to the ''Weekly'' and transformed it into a tabloid publication. The ''Weekly'' was later sold to the Detroit-based Alternative Media Inc., a publisher of alternative newsweekly Detroit ''Metro Times.'' Co-founder of Alternative Media Inc.,
Ron Williams
Ronald Allen Williams (born 1949) is an American Businessman, Entrepreneur and management consultant, and board director on corporate, public sector and non-profit boards. Williams is the author of ''Learning to Lead: The Journey to Leading Yo ...
, transformed the paper into not just a tabloid but an alternative news source dedicated to investigative journalism. In 1997, Alternative Media Inc. also purchased the ''
San Antonio Current'';
by 1998, the company was entertaining multiple offers for its stable of weeklies.
In 1999, the papers were purchased by
Times-Shamrock Communications Times-Shamrock Communications is an American media company based in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The company, owned by the Lynett and Haggerty families of Scranton, lists among its assets four daily newspapers, six weekly newspapers, and nine radio stat ...
. In 2013, Times-Shamrock sold the paper to
Euclid Media Group.
Association of Alternative Newsmedia Awards
2018 AAN
LGBT Coverage 1st PLACE: Orlando Weekly: By night, Orlando's drag queens entertain the masses. By day, they lead the fight for LGBTQ rights by Monivette Cordeiro
Arts Criticism 2nd PLACE: Orlando Weekly: (I; II; III) by Jessica Bryce Young, Richard Reep
INNOVATION / FORMAT BUSTER 1st PLACE: Orlando Weekly: Florida Film Fest/420 Issue by Chaya Av, Chris Tobar Rodriguez, Jessica Bryce Young
2017 AAN
LGBT Coverage 2nd PLACE: Orlando Weekly: Pulse In Memoriam: Remembering the Orlando 49 (I; II; III; IV; V) by Monivette Cordeiro
Film Criticism 1st PLACE: Orlando Weekly: Film Criticism (I; II; III) by Thaddeus McCollum
Illustration 1st PLACE: Orlando Weekly: Heavy is the Head by Samantha Shumaker
Photography 2nd PLACE: Orlando Weekly: Pulse Photographs by Monivette Cordeiro
2014 AAN
Arts Criticism 1st Place: Malick Sidibé; I Believe in You; and And Every Day Was Overcast by Jessica Bryce Young, Orlando Weekly
2013 AAN
Breaking News 3rd Place: Sick of It (Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5) by Billy Manes, Orlando Weekly
2012 AAN
Special Topic: Economic Equality 2nd Place: Bare Minimum by Jeff Gore, Orlando Weekly
2010 AAN
Illustration First Place: Orlando Weekly, Fringe Free-For-All by Jeff Drew
Arts Criticism Third Place: Orlando Weekly, Ecstatic Transformations and Summer Studies by Jessica Bryce Young
2009 AAN
First Place: Orlando Weekly, Might Makes Right by Jeffrey C. Billman
Controversies
The paper has been historically critical of
anti-homeless laws
Anti-homelessness legislation can take two forms: legislation that aims to help and re-house homeless people; and legislation that is intended to send homeless people to homeless shelters compulsorily, or to criminalize homelessness and begging.
...
passed in Orlando, including a controversial city law that prohibits advocates for the homeless from feeding large groups of people in public spaces within two miles of Orlando's City Hall without a permit. Orlando Weekly has also taken a decidedly critical stance on controversial Republican Florida Gov.
Rick Scott
Richard Lynn Scott ( Myers, born December 1, 1952) is an American politician serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States Senate, United States senator from Florida since 2019. A member of the Republican Party (U ...
who took office in 2011, as well as recent legislative efforts to pass laws that infringe on
women's rights
Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countri ...
.
In 2007, the paper ran afoul of Orlando's Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation when they staged a raid on the publication and arrested three of its advertising representatives for allegedly supporting prostitution.
Daniel Aaronson, a longtime Fort Lauderdale criminal defense lawyer and First Amendment specialist, called the arrests and police actions "incredibly repugnant." Aaronson said the Weekly did nothing wrong if they simply took and ran adult-oriented advertisements."The papers aren't doing anything illegal. They're taking ads. If an ad uses suggestive language, the stopping of these ads threatens the First Amendment," said Aaronson, who has represented adult entertainment clubs, bookstores, and swinger clubs.
The paper considers this act retaliation for past negative coverage of the agency. On February 27, 2008, the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation dropped all charges in the criminal case.
References
External links
Official site
{{Euclid Media Group
Newspapers published in Florida
Alternative weekly newspapers published in the United States
Mass media in Orlando, Florida
1990 establishments in Florida
Publications established in 1990