Artvoice

About Artvoice

Artvoice is an alternative news publication based in Buffalo, New York. Founded in June 1990 by Jamie Moses as a free weekly print newspaper, it grew rapidly from an initial circulation of 10,000 to 65,000, becoming for many years the only professional print competition to The Buffalo News in the Buffalo metropolitan area. It covered arts, theater, music, food, sports, politics, urban development, and environmental issues across the Buffalo region. Financial distress forced the paper to cease printing in 2017; it now publishes its content exclusively online at artvoice.com.

Founding in 1990

Artvoice was founded by Jamie Moses in June 1990 as a free weekly print publication in Buffalo, New York. Moses built the paper on the classic alternative-weekly model — free distribution, advertising support, irreverent voice, heavy arts and entertainment coverage — at a time when Buffalo's media landscape was dominated by The Buffalo News. The paper's early growth was explosive: circulation climbed from 10,000 to 65,000, and a national newspaper auditing company credited the paper with an audited monthly readership of 250,000 — readership exceeding circulation because, as a weekly, each copy was passed around and read over several days.

By the mid-1990s, Artvoice had established itself as Buffalo's oldest and largest weekly newspaper, with advertising industry reports describing it as the fastest-growing media outlet in the market and noting a circulation increase of more than 630 percent since its inception. It distributed tens of thousands of copies weekly at more than 2,000 locations around Western New York, with a reported pickup rate averaging 98 percent.

Editorial Coverage

Artvoice covered the full range of alternative-weekly concerns: arts, theater, music, food, sports, politics, urban development, and environmental issues in the Buffalo region. Its readership was described as including the young and hip, the highly educated, professionals, elected officials, and business people, with audit reports showing readers had substantial disposable incomes and active lifestyles — a profile that made it a favored advertising vehicle for retail stores, banks, car dealers, bookstores, nightclubs, restaurants, theaters, galleries, and concert promoters.

The paper's political coverage was traditionally liberal and often contentious. UB Distinguished Professor of English Bruce Jackson, for example, wrote about public affairs for Artvoice before leaving to start his own online publication, the Buffalo Report, in 2002, saying he had felt constrained in what he could write about certain political figures — a charge publisher Jamie Moses disputed.

Early Digital Pioneer

Artvoice first published content on Artvoice.com in 1996, and it was one of the first newspapers in the country to include video on its website. The early move online gave the paper a digital head start unusual among alternative weeklies of its era, and the website became an increasingly important part of the operation as print advertising began its long decline.

Anniversaries and Milestones

In 2010, Artvoice celebrated its 20th anniversary with a June edition tracing the history of the publication. The anniversary marked two decades as Buffalo's leading alternative voice — a run that had seen the paper outlast numerous competitors and establish itself as an institution in Western New York's cultural life.

The paper celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2015 with a party featuring music and dance performances and visual arts, a fitting tribute for a publication that had always treated Buffalo's creative community as its core constituency.

The 2015 Partnership with Frank Parlato Jr.

In 2015, founder Jamie Moses took on a partner — something he had long resisted. Real-estate developer Frank Parlato Jr., owner of the Niagara Falls Reporter, joined forces with Moses in a partnership announced that October. The move came as Artvoice, the 25-year-old alternative weekly, had been weighed down by debt and challenged by The Public, a competing alternative weekly created the previous fall by former Artvoice staffers.

The new partnership signaled a change in the paper's editorial direction, incorporating more conservative viewpoints alongside the paper's traditional art coverage and liberalism. Moses and Parlato became co-owners of the publication.

The Public: A Rival Is Born

In 2014, several of Artvoice's writers and editors left the paper amid concerns about its finances and internal conflicts, and founded a competing alternative newsweekly, The Public. Publishing 35,000 free copies each Wednesday across the Buffalo-Niagara region, The Public focused on Buffalo-area art, music, culture, and politics, featuring locally created art on its covers and in weekly centerfolds. The split divided Buffalo's alternative-media scene and intensified the financial pressures on Artvoice.

End of Print (2017)

By 2017, the combination of debt, competition, and the industry-wide collapse of print advertising had become unsustainable, and Artvoice ceased printing because of financial distress. The paper now releases its content at its website only, Artvoice.com, continuing to publish news, arts coverage, and opinion in digital form. For many years it had been the only professional print competition to The Buffalo News distributed throughout the Buffalo metropolitan area; its departure from print marked the end of an era in Buffalo journalism.

Ownership

Artvoice is owned by Jamie Moses and Frank Parlato Jr., the partnership formed in 2015. Moses remains the paper's founder and guiding figure, while Parlato brought the resources of the Niagara Falls Reporter to the combined operation.

Legacy in Buffalo Media

Across its print run from 1990 to 2017, Artvoice shaped Buffalo's cultural and political conversation in ways that outlasted the paper edition. It gave sustained, serious coverage to the city's music, theater, and visual-art scenes; it provided a liberal counterweight in local politics; and it trained a generation of Western New York journalists and writers, some of whom went on to found The Public and other outlets. Its early adoption of the web — publishing online from 1996 and pioneering newspaper video — anticipated the digital transformation that would eventually become its sole platform.

Artvoice Today

As a digital-only publication at artvoice.com, Artvoice continues to cover Buffalo-area news, arts, and opinion. The website remains active, carrying forward the alternative voice that Jamie Moses established in June 1990 — adapted to a media environment in which the free weekly print newspaper, once the engine of alternative journalism in America, has largely given way to the screen.

Writers, Editors, and the Newsroom

Artvoice's newsroom produced journalists who went on to shape Buffalo media well beyond the paper itself. Geoff Kelly, a former Artvoice editor, became the founding editor of The Public when he and other departing staffers launched the rival weekly in 2014. UB Distinguished Professor Bruce Jackson wrote about public affairs for Artvoice before founding the Buffalo Report online journal in 2002. The paper's music, film, and arts writers chronicled Buffalo's creative scenes through decades of change, from the city's post-industrial struggles to its 21st-century revival.

The newsroom's culture reflected the alternative-weekly ethos: irreverent, opinionated, deeply embedded in the city's bars, galleries, and theaters, and skeptical of official narratives from City Hall and the county legislature. That voice — part booster of Buffalo's underground culture, part watchdog over its politics — defined the paper's identity through its print years and continues in its digital incarnation.

From a 10,000-circulation startup in June 1990 to a 65,000-circulation Buffalo institution, through partnership, rivalry, and the end of print, Artvoice's three-decade run remains one of the most significant chapters in Western New York journalism — and its digital edition keeps that alternative voice alive at artvoice.com.