Snitch Newsweekly

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Snitch was a free, alternative weekly newspaper published in parts of the United States covering crime and police news. Perhaps the most notable feature was the ZIP Code Crime Watch, which gave brief, usually "smart aleck" commentary on literally hundreds of items in the weekly police blotter, broken down by ZIP Codes, along with crime totals for the respective areas. Snitch also ran numerous crime-themed articles in each issue, as well as advertisements and classifieds.

Snitch was started in Louisville, Kentucky and the Media Audit showed 211,000 readers as of January 2005. There were also editions of the paper in Lexington, Kentucky, Savannah, Georgia, San Diego, California, South Carolina and Northern Kentucky. In December 2004 the parent company, a venture capital firm named Prosperitas, pulled out of the concept, and the Louisville edition was sold to Tim Woodburn, who owned the Lexington edition. Woodburn continued to publish in Louisville and Lexington, while the San Diego, Savannah and Northern Kentucky editions have all stopped publishing (in February 2005, October 2004 and November 2004 respectively). The Columbia, South Carolina, edition continues to be published by Jim Shine and Jerry Adams on an intermittent basis.

In May 2005 the executive editor Richard Des Ruisseaux retired, having run the Louisville edition since its founding.

In July 2005, Louisville Crime, LLC, the new owners of Snitch, announced that they had been unable to reach agreement with the former owners about certain issues, so Louisville Snitch ceased publication immediately as of that date. The announcement said that the paper would reopen late Fall 2005, under a new name [1]. In December 2005, Lexington Snitch also ceased publication, citing lack of advertising revenue, and pledging a replacement, The Lexington Times, in spring 2006.