No New Newspapers

Starting next week, when a little-known 1999 ordinance will start being enforced, a publisher who wants to start a newspaper in Philadelphia will not be able to put news boxes on city streets.

Given the logistics of how newspapers are now distributed, this means that there will be no new newspapers in Philadelphia.

If you find this hard to believe, here's something even more astonishing: The city's largest publishers helped make up the rules that would effectively discourage competition.

In 1999, the city invited -- if that's the word -- the Inquirer, Daily News, USA Today, Philadelphia Gay News, Philadelphia Weekly and, yes, City Paper, to discuss redrafting news-box legislation that had been floundering since 1995.

Convened by First District Councilman Frank DiCicco and blessed by Paul Levy of the Center City District, these were contentious meetings. As Levy recently told me, the most dramatic scene was the lottery. Papers picked Ping-Pong balls out of a hat to determine who would get the choicest locations in honor-box corrals. That settled, they went before the Streets Committee to support the bill.

As the founding publisher of City Paper, I can sympathize with being prodded into compliance, especially if told to either help or have the rules made up without me. But what we've got is a cartel created by extortion.

Soon, if DiCicco and Levy have their way, you will see a lot fewer news boxes. And news boxes for publications not invited to the meeting (or those not around in 1999) will either be hidden away or disappear completely. This includes the Philadelphia Independent, a great read, but still struggling as a monthly. The Independent will lose one of it most important assets: street presence. Or so reports publisher Mattathias Schwartz in his column.

I've never met Schwartz, but my heart goes out to him since I've suffered the slow and painful birth of a new paper. In 1981, City Paper began as a monthly, moving to biweekly publication two years later and finally to weekly in 1987. Without hesitation I can say that if City Paper had to go through what the Independent must, you wouldn't be holding this paper in your hands.

Not only have the current publishers locked up the best locations but even now, four years after the passage of this ordinance, there are no protocols for new papers.

I asked Paul Levy (who returned my call) and James Donaghy of Streets (through subordinates, since he didn't respond) for guidance and costs for new publishers. There simply aren't any. So, enjoy the news you're reading. Because, soon, that's all the news you're going to get.

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