The first issue of Seattle Voices, a photocopied, two-page newsletter appeared in early June, featuring progressive-minded articles and a calendar of political meetings and cultural events similar to those printed in the Catalyst. Its July issue, a four-pager, was produced on newsprint and featured more of what was in the first issue.

Colin Wright, a Green, says the group wants to form a collective with a five- or six-person coordinating committee and volunteers to help produce and distribute the newsletter. The Greens printed 1,000 copies in June and 2,500 in July. Expenses are being paid with advertising revenue and donations.

Placing calendar listings in Voices is free. The Capitol Hill Greens can be reached at 726-0300, or by writing to 2253-B E. Roanoke, Seattle, 98112.

Pulling the plug on five hours of classical music a day, the station met KPLU's daily complement of news coverage and upped the ante. The station, at 94.9 FM, added 2-1/2 hours of BBC programming a day, along with the first editions of National Public Radio's Fresh Air and All Things Considered. Also new is a show called Weekday that features local news, public affairs and culture. Running twice a day, it replaces Ross Reynolds' Seattle After Noon at 4 p.m.

"We have the very best coverage of the world that is available in the area," said Reynolds, the station's program director. "People are being flooded by infotainment. We're looking for listeners who are interested in the world."

Reynolds said response to the new format, which was anticipated with much concern by listeners, has been mixed.

Here's a rundown of the UW-based station's new (summer 1993) weekday schedule:

But it's mainly a visual makeover, despite the Times' best efforts to tell readers that it has made substantive editorial improvements. If anything, it has stepped backwards in this regard. By increasing the use of "digests" and snippets that are little more than expanded headlines, the Times in fact may be reducing its commitment to in-depth coverage.

The packaging of stories, albeit more attractive, seems to have taken precedence over their content. Such a shift doubtlessly will suck energy away from journalistic integrity and redirect it into the paper's image. (Can you say USA Today? )

Times editors know they are competing more and more with non-print providers of news and entertainment, so their televisionization of the paper makes perfect market sense. But this does not mean that content has to suffer; longer, in-depth stories can be visually appealing as well.

Though eloquent in justifying the need for more media analysis, Carlson uses Counterpoint to discredit fears of a depleted ozone layer, attack progressive health-care and education reforms, justify the Strategic Defense Initiative, and skewer or glorify media practices as needed to comply with his Company Line.

What Carlson apparently does not realize is that, if indeed the media in general do have a liberal slant, the most effective way to expose this is not to douse his media analysis with conservative dressing.

• Now in the formative stage is the Northwest Alternative Media Society, an organization that will serve as a unifying voice and booster for the region's non-mass media. You publishers and program directors will be getting a little package in the mail in the coming weeks.

• Though we have been highly critical of The Seattle Times in the past, the paper's management deserves accolades and thanks for its decision to refuse all new ads for tobacco products. The paper announced the change in early June and editor Michael Fancher discussed the policy in a refreshingly introspective column June 20. Fancher does a good job responding to critics who may accuse the paper of undercutting a constitutional freedom that it otherwise fights tooth and nail. "The First Amendment restricts what Congress can do; it does not restrict the press or require anything of the press. The press is free to act under its own initiative and insights."

• The producers of South Africa Now are doing a new, half-hour weekly news program called Rights and Wrongs. The program focuses on human rights and includes "video diaries" made by activists worldwide. When contacted recently, Seattle public television station KCTS-9 had no plans for airing the program. To ensure that this program finds a place among the standard PBS fare of financial news and mainstream talk shows, viewers are encouraged to call in a request to KCTS at 728-6463, or your local public TV station. The program is available through Globalvision, via New York public TV station WNET.

• Neighbor-to-Neighbor, a national group promoting health-care reform, has produced a 30-second TV ad supporting a Canadian-style single-payer system. But when the organization tried to buy network TV time in Boston, San Francisco and San Diego, it was rebuffed by nearly every station. According to a Neighbor- to-Neighbor spokesperson, a Boston station admitted that it refused to run the ad because many TV advertisers are insurance companies.

• Want to help keep serious media criticism in the pages of Seattle's mainstream media? Write a letter to the The Seattle Times in support of Media Beat, a weekly column by Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, a New York-based media watchdog organization. Every Saturday on the Times editorial page, Cohen and Solomon offer a consistently enlightening mix of media analysis and investigative reporting. Their exposure of corporate meddling in news decisions and the underreporting or outright ignoring of important issues is so damning, it's surprising the Times even carries the column. To ensure that it stays this way, write to the Times' editorial page editor, Mindy Cameron, at P.O. Box 70, Seattle, 98111, or call her at 464-2323.

• Just out is the first issue of Holistic Health News, a four-page tabloid with articles about naturopathic healing, homeopathy, massage and other alternatives to mainstream medicine. It's published by the Holistic Health Hotline, a service that links healers with people who need to be healed. Publisher/editor Patty Harder can be reached through the hotline at (206) 363-4445 or 1-800-994-4445. The paper is free; mail subscriptions are $10.

• Also new around Seattle coffee shops is the Magickal Times, a 12-page tab "serving the neo-pagan and magickal community." The bimonthly paper is edited by Gwydion-Gweneth Stone of Edge of the Circle Books on Capitol Hill. The paper, written by Pagans about Paganism for Pagans, focuses on "sacred sex" in its first issue - namely, what does Paganism have to say about androgyny, transgenderism, the use of leather during sex, coital positions and so on. It also includes a guide to local Pagan resources. Pagan or no, it's worth picking up.

• New in the world of New Age publications is Connexions Monthly, a free magazine designed to build bridges within the state's healing arts community. The 12-page premiere features stories and columns about astrology, therapy, law, holistic health and astronomy, as well as an events calendar, personals, classifieds, a New Age "yellow pages" and a professional services directory. Subscriptions are $12 a year. Publisher Karen Rosenblum can be reached at (206) 722-1275.

• The latest feminist journal to make an appearance in Western Washington is Gaya. A clean, 24-page, photocopied prototype emerged in June with poetry, short fiction, art and commentary. The staff is using the prototype to sell ads and raise money for a debut issue due out in the first week of August. Submissions are being sought for the quarterly publication, which is trying to reach women between 14 and 30 in hopes of "eliminating isolation" of young women. Contributors are asked to contact Hester Prynne, 725 E. Denny Way, Box 201, Seattle, 98122. Subscriptions are $8 a year.

• Launched no doubt in response to sensationalized television reports about waste in state government, "Blow the Whistle" recently made its debut in the local section of The Seattle Times. The column asks alert citizens to phone or write in their tips not only about marble coffee cups and gold-plated toilet handles in the halls of government, but also about any ripoffs and improprieties they may know about in the public or private arena.

• Eastside Week founding publisher/editor Knute "Skip" Berger will become editor of the Seattle Weekly come Aug. 16, leaving David Brewster with only two titles - publisher of the Weekly and CEO of Sasquatch Publishing. Berger, 39, an Evergreen grad and editor of the old Washington Magazine, will split his days between Bellevue and Seattle. Weekly staffers no doubt will be watching whether Berger, whose Eastside Week is markedly more quirky than its reserved counterpart, will be able to pursue his editorial agenda while under the eye of Brewster, a legendary micromanager. Ostensibly freed-up, Brewster will use the extra time to explore other pursuits, a Weekly spokesperson said.

• Sally Clark, former editor of the Lesbian Resource Center's Community News, is putting out the Bulletin newsletter for the Washington Citizens for Fairness/Hands Off Washington, an organization fighting measures to deny civil rights to gays and lesbians. Clark's next WCF/HOW newsletter will be her last; she just landed a job as news-features editor for the Seattle Gay News.

• Headline atop the June 14 local section of The Seattle Times: "Governor's scorecard after six months." They beat the P-I on the story, except they were five weeks early. The body of the story correctly says that Mike had been in office for only five months.

• Is it just us or does the Seattle Times' new low-rub ink smell different than the old stuff?

• It is "very probable" that the Seattle Weekly will move out of its Pike Place Market-area office into another downtown space, says publisher David Brewster.

• Seattle P-I editor J.D. Alexander will take over as publisher for the retiring Virgil Fassio.

• For those who give a hoot about such things, KIRO news-out-of-the-box director Andy Ludlum has been canned, so have 18 other station staffers. Over at KING-TV, nice-guy anchor Mike James has left the station to do his own TV shows.

• Seattle Times columnist Don Williamson has stopped ending his columns with "We'll talk more later."