I could shine it on for a few paragraphs,

and pretend that what I’m about to tell you isn’t, at least in part, a business decision, but I won’t do that. Here’s the deal:

AltDaily is owned by Paper Pixel LLC, a company consisting of Hannah and I that, up to now, has owned nothing else. We’ve long known that we need to diversify our revenue streams from just advertising income from AltDaily.com. Phase Two of our business plan is now in motion. In the coming months and years you will see more events from us, and not all the revenue will go to charity. There will be T-shirts and other merch. There will be print publications. AltDaily is growing fast.

In keeping with those goals, we are launching AltMarketing.

AltMarketing will do everything most marketing firms do: branding, events, press releases, print materials, video, and campaigns from beginning to end. This is something we have been talking about for almost a year now.

We're still the same little old AltDaily. (Thanks again Walt Taylor)

AltDaily will continue to do what it already does, including bringing culture, politics, and change to the community. At AltDaily, integrity and honesty are king, and will remain so as long as I am editor. This essay is to explain how we are going to differentiate the business side and the editorial side of everything Alt.

The answer is, you can’t have your cake and eat it too, as they say. In order to move forward, we had to take a step back and actually break-up to a degree.

To keep the editorial and marketing arms separate, Hannah is now the sole publisher of AltDaily and has also taken up the role of creative director. Partnering with her on AltMarketing is Joval Martin, Paper Pixel’s new Director of Sales and Marketing. It’s their baby—with its own first partnership: The City of Norfolk’s Office of Economic Development.

Joval and Hannah are going to be working with them on a campaign to attract and retain the young creative class through online media, relationship building within industries here in the city, and a number of other initiatives that I’ll let them explain themselves when they formally introduce AltMarketing next week. Though I will tell you this about AltMarketing right now: You won’t see them representing BP or Westboro Baptist Church anytime soon; they won’t take on any client or cause that we wouldn’t feel comfortable associating with the AltDaily brand.

I wasn’t involved in the process of building this sponsorship, or any other client or project, for that matter. But if this campaign is focused on making Norfolk more small-business friendly, and helping keep the best and brightest young professionals here in town, yah, I’m going to be involved at some point. And AltDaily will too.

Where does all this leave me? Exactly where I’ve always wanted to be: still the editor, but as far away from sales and the money as possible.

It’s ironic that AltMarketing–an idea we held off on because we were worried about diluting our editorial integrity–is actually going to make my editorial independence stronger than before. I never have to talk to a business owner about advertising ever again… Not that I did much of it before–haven’t for months and months, actually-but I’m ecstatic that now I’m not allowed to by the rules of my own company.

I love it here and I want to make it a better place for everyone. No secret about that. (Map | UTexas Library))

There will be times when AltMarketing works on a project that also serves AltDaily’s missions. I’ve said from the start that this isn’t going to be your standard alternative publication. I want AltDaily to create better lives for us all. And I don’t mean that in some trite, smaltzy way. I want AltDaily to publish articles, and create events, and support progressive legislation that makes the people of Hampton Roads happier, healthier, more informed, more engaged, and safer in their everyday lives.

That kind of work can be done only so well with words. To accomplish our mission, we have to be a political entity of sorts. In the next two years I want to see new laws that encourage more bike riding and that keep cyclists safer; I want to see an ordinance in place that supports street performance in Norfolk; I want us to be part of the team that brings a community garden Downtown; I want art everywhere; I wouldn’t mind seeing the ordinance changed to allow backyard chickens in Norfolk; and if there’s a gay rights issue–or any civil rights issue–you can bet we’ll be on the front lines, fighting the good fight.

**

Let’s be real: this is an imperfect world. As much as we’d like to protect editors from influence, you can’t entirely. In the end, the editor/reader relationship is like any other: it comes down to trust. I wear my heart (and biases) on my sleeve, I have for my year here as editor, and I will continue to do so. Plus, there are some natural counter-balances in place to any way that businesses or politicians are trying to influence myself or AltDaily:

- I’m a very sensitive young man. If you write me a thoughtful email about why something I’ve done or said is wrong, I will read every word. It will affect me.

- If you think something we are doing is totally off-base, invite me over for dinner or to get a drink. (Do this anyway, actually.)  I will hear you out. I will listen. I know that I’m not the smartest cat in town, or the most experienced, or the most well-read. I’m here to grow and learn here too, yah know?

- Probably the most important weapon against editor bias AltDaily readers have is the Op-Ed. I will publish any thoughtful, intelligent, non-hateful, well-researched editorial that comes into my inbox. So if you’re mad, get writing, and get your voice heard. Right now we’ve got about 44,000 readers a month, and we’re growing all the time. It’s quite a soapbox. Use it. My email address is jesse@altdaily.com.

- We are in the early stages of putting together an editorial board to watch over things for us. I’ll keep you posted on that process.

**

I'm still the same little kid that just wants to make my dad proud. We can figure all this out together.

Let me step off the soapbox myself for a minute, and get back to the black and white of the issue: the business side. The newspaper industry is dying. When I tell you that ad revenue has now fallen at U.S. newspapers in 13 consecutive quarters compared with the previous year, as reported by Bloomberg Businessweek, you’re not surprised.

As that same article reminds us, newspapers traditionally have relied on advertising for about 80 percent of their revenue. As Maurice Jones, publisher of The Virginian-Pilot, asked at a community meeting recently, What do you do when 80% of your income goes into a recession?

I can tell you one thing, you don’t just let yourself fade away.

Let me revise that previous sentence: The newspaper industry is changing. It’s not a newspaper industry anymore, it’s a media industry.

Take The Pilot. As Jones said, they’re not a newspaper company; they’re a media company. They get significant revenue from Pilot Direct, their direct marketing company. According to our pals at Wikipedia, The Pilot is part of Pilot Media Companies, which includes Pilotonline.com/Hamptonroads.com, Pilot Direct printing, LNC (Local News on Cable)/Pilot13 News, Hamptonroads.tv, Inside Business, Link, The Flagship, Military Newspapers of Virginia, and other supplemental print and web businesses.

And that’s simply smart of them. It’s necessary. Just a newspaper, it is not.

And neither, now, is AltDaily.