Weeklies is a colloquial term for an alternative newspaper that is published on a weekly basis. These publications typically contain listings for adult services in their classified sections, including advertisements for adult massage parlours and escorts. The Village Voice, The Stranger, and San Francisco Bay Guardian are all examples of weeklies.
The term alt-weeklies is another term for weeklies.
The advertisements for adult services featured in weeklies are often provocative. Many sex workers blur out or hide their faces, but they often pose provocatively and wear revealing clothing. Some ads list the sex workers’ hourly rates, while others call for roses or other donations. Some ads also state preferred procedures for booking the services to avoid legal issues. For example, some ads instruct clients to never call from private numbers or discuss the services over the phone. Others ask men to leave their names and hotel room numbers in voice mail messages.
In order to get around the fact that it's illegal to advertise sex services, prostitutes often claim to be escorts, and adult massage parlours claim to be legitimate massage parlours.
Some weeklies have come under fire from critics who believe that these publications aid sex traffickers that prostitute under-age girls. A number of women have even sued weeklies because they feel these publications have exploited them. Even the weeklies who take measures to ensure they do not promote underage girls or victims of sex trafficking have earned the wrath of female advocates, who believe all adult ads in weeklies exploit women.
Perhaps in response to such movements, many weeklies are now running fewer adult advertisements, or phasing them out altogether in steps to clean up their publications and attract “higher end” advertising.
