Continuing our series of interviews with Charlottesville media movers and shakers, we spoke recently with Hawes Spencer and Courteney Stuart at the offices of The HooK, overlooking the Downtown Mall. Spencer is Associate Publisher and Editor (and a founder, with Publisher Blair Kelly), while Stuart is Senior Editor.

The HooK was started in February of 2002, shortly after Spencer's very public departure from C-Ville Weekly, where he had been Editor (and a co-founder).

Our first question is, is there room for two tabloid alternative weeklies in a market this size?

Hawes Spencer answers quickly and affirmatively: "Yes!"

But then, after a moment's consideration, adds, "Actually, we rarely use 'alternative' in describing The HooK. It's too niche-y a word - we try not to be too niche-y [rhymes with itchy] - actually we see ourselves as having a different mission from C-Ville." (If you happen to dial The HooK, the phone is answered "… Charlottesville's premier alternative weekly").

These days, Hawes Spencer is a happy man. "From day-one we've had the dream team - every single free-lance writer and cartoonist who was working with me at C-Ville came to The HooK ... and some of the best staff ....

"When we started The HooK, we didn't set out to be anything in particular ... [as we've refined and changed over the past year] we've found the path we want to take and we're all pretty happy with the direction."

He illustrates one aspect of the new direction. "... We recently unveiled a business section ...We were the first to get on the Ivy Industries story ...."

Courteney Stuart picks up the theme: "We started [by] doing stories that interested us - as people who live in Charlottesville - stories that would appeal [to other people like us] - we judge by the response, by how many papers are picked up - people see - we're reporters plus consumers of local news.

"And now we have a business section - we thought there was a need for business coverage, not for the stockbrokers, but for people like us - when I started doing [articles on business], I did them from the point of view of what I wanted to know - I didn't know a lot about business...."

Spencer adds, "we run more stories of a business nature than the Charlottesville Business Journal .... We think of The HooK as the Time Magazine for the local market - maybe [when I ran it I saw] C-Ville as the Village Voice.

[When we started] "I said it would take $200,000 [investment]. Well, it took more, but even so, we're just about breaking even now - to go from startup to breakeven in a year or so is just about unprecedented in this kind of publishing."

Spencer mentions that, according to Verified Audits, C-Ville Weekly's circulation now is around 17,000 - and he points out that this has definitely fallen since he left. "It was around 20 [before I left] .... Early print runs of The HooK were around 15,000, and now we're printing 21,000 .... We're still watching our costs very closely.

When asked how many copies of The HooK are picked up each week, he answers that "The Hook is not audited - yet - because the trend is upward, and so anything we audit now will [freeze] a number - and it's expensive [to do an audit] - so it's not in our best interests to have ourselves audited right now.

"[And besides] very few advertisers demand or even expect these numbers."

But Spencer wants it clear that this is not what it is about, for him.

"I love journalism! At C-Ville, there were ongoing arguments with my partners - they wanted to build an empire. This [The HooK] is it! We" (waving his arm to include Staff Reporter Lisa Provence, Stuart, and all the other news-loving staff members throughout the building) "... we love this - the news business - I hate talking about a horse race - let's just say that the Charlottesville reading public is well served."

On the HooK website, there's a page with a rundown on local media [see box, below]. The HooK includes itself as a 'Local Newspaper,' while C-Ville Weekly is considered an 'Arts/Tourism/Niche' publication.

In her recent interview with us, Cathy Harding, editor of C-Ville, asserted that most HooK articles were 'single-source,' that is, the writer relied on just one person for the information conveyed. When asked to comment on the contention, Spencer advised any interested persons to "go look at our website, and judge for themselves how our stories are sourced. And unlike C-Ville, we put all of our articles on our website.

"We have a more extensive website than C-Ville, a much better website."

"I love media - I read all the weeklies and monthlies, I watch [channel] 29, listen to [W]INA ... [in this rich media mix] we just want to be an interesting paper." (Dave Sagarin, April 18, 2003)