Humes is out; Brick’s future unclear

Since the early-’70s, under the banner of “alternative magazine,” a series of mastheads have come to Richmond and been buried. Among others they include: The Richmond Mercury, Throttle, SLANT, Caffeine, Punchline and Chew on This. On that list only the Mercury (1972-75) had any real money behind it. The others were kept alive more […]

October 18, 2007; 3:53 PM • by FTRea

Since the early-’70s, under the banner of “alternative magazine,” a series of mastheads have come to Richmond and been buried. Among others they include: The Richmond Mercury, Throttle, SLANT, Caffeine, Punchline and Chew on This. On that list only the Mercury (1972-75) had any real money behind it. The others were kept alive more by dreams and energy than money.

STYLE Weekly was launched by Lorna Wyckoff in 1982. It began as a West End-based independent, then moved to the Fan District. Shortly afterward, in the mid-‘80s, Wyckoff sold it to Landmark Communications, a huge media conglomerate which still owns it. But STYLE has never really cast itself as an anything akin to an “alternative.”

In some ways the most unusual of the so-called alternative magazines to have existed in Richmond over the last 35 years has to have been Brick Weekly. Pete Humes, who published Punchline in it day, has served as Brick’s only editor since it began in August of 2006.

Now Humes has been sacked, according to this story in STYLE Weekly.

“It did not meet expectations,” T-D spokeswoman Frazier Millner says of Brick … “The paper will morph into something that is more of a life-stage, lifestyle publication.”

What “life-stage, lifestyle” is supposed to mean beats me. But it seems that for the time being, the brass plans to keep Brick alive, but change it into something with less of an edge.

Like others, when I first learned of Media General’s plan to install Humes as editor of what would be its free weekly tabloid — billed as an “alternative” — I wondered how in the world that would work. It seemed like oddly-matched marriage.

Then Brick came out and it pleasantly surprised me at times.

That Humes kept his balance up on that tightrope he was walking for over a year was a feat few, if any, could have managed. However, that Humes’ usefulness to Media General as the editor of Brick has expired abruptly comes as no surprise.

Kudos go out to Humes for his effort and his latest contribution to the history of Richmond’s alternative ‘zines. Now I suppose we will see what a life-stage, lifestyle publication looks like. Or, maybe we won’t, because in this business things can change abruptly.

October 18, 2007 3:53 PM 0