The 160-page anniversary issue, published today, is "an idiosyncratic mashup of 25 years of city journalism," writes editor Duane Swierczynski. "We've selected 25 'memorable' stories, from investigative epics to little goofy items that made us smile." Co-founder Bruce Schimmel provides details of the paper's "ugly, lovely birth" as an offshoot of a local community radio station, and Publisher Paul Curci looks toward the alt-weekly's future: "As a reader, expect to have more access, to our writers and to the stories themselves. Expect more new voices and new features. As an advertiser, expect more innovative ways to reach new customers. Above all, expect the unexpected."
"People who relish offensiveness to make a point are all for free speech -- so long as the speech doesn't offend them. This is a liberal hypocrisy," Robert L. Jamieson Jr. writes in his Seattle Post-Intelligencer column today. Jamieson is upset because a local nightclub canceled a show by reggae singer Buju Banton, whose lyrics contain references to killing homosexuals. (He was rescheduled at a different venue.) The outcry was "fueled in part by The Stranger, which loudly sounded the alarm on its blog after other city bloggers began a witch hunt," even though "the alternative weekly touts itself as a champion of free speech and a pusher of artistic envelopes," Jamieson argues. In a post on The Stranger's blog Tuesday, writer Eli Sanders responded to the paper's critics: "The Stranger is not the U.S. Supreme Court or the Seattle Police Department. We don’t interpret the Constitution and we don’t enforce its provisions. ... The First Amendment continues to exist despite Neumo’s cancelling of the Buju Banton show. Neumo’s still has the right to put on offensive shows if it wants to. We still have the right to put up blog posts about Buju Banton if we want to. And Buju Banton himself, if he really still believes in the urgency of an artistic message that includes glorifying anti-gay violence, can stand on the street in front of Neumo’s (or in any other public space) and shout that message as loud as he wants."
AAN member L.A. Alternative has printed its final issue, reports online journal LAObserved. In a letter to staffers, owner Martin Albornoz says that the weekly's "problem has never been attracting loyal readers, but the cutthroat competition with our corporate rivals has made it harder to get and keep new advertisers." The newspaper was previously known as the L.A. Alternative Press; the name was shortened in Nov. 2005 when the paper shifted from a biweekly to a weekly schedule. Albornoz says that the news organization will experiment throughout October with online publishing. "The fact that we lasted this long is still a feat," he says. "In fact, it's a real testament to the authentic voice we've created together."
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