By: Lucia Moses The Alternative Weekly Network named a new acting CEO to stabilize the organization, which sells national ads in 105 alternative papers.
The July 7 announcement came about two weeks after the AWN lost five of its biggest members. The Village Voice Media group of weeklies said it would leave by year's end to start its own ad sales network and hoped to take other AWN members along.
Neil Skene, a consultant who recommended changes to the AWN in January,
including the hiring of a chief executive, was named to the acting position.
The 5-year-old AWN works cooperatively, with its member papers selling ads across the group. A small AWN staff handles back-office duties.
Skene said the AWN's problems stem from its rapid growth. Since its founding five years ago, the AWN reported annual sales have grown from $2.2 million to $22.4 million last year.
'The organization has grown very fast, it has no staff of its own,' Skene said.
'It now needs a stronger strategic leadership. It needs to rethink the fee system that existed when it was one-tenth the size.'
His tasks will include establishing a working relationship with the Village Voice papers after they leave the AWN, improving service to members and ad clients, and creating a new commission and fee structure.
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