King County Executive Ron Sims had to race ahead with his plan to challenge state law prohibiting gay marriage after the editor of The Stranger showed up at the courthouse on March 5 seeking a marriage license. Bob Young reports in The Seattle Times that gay marriage proponents wanted to have "hand-picked couples" challenge the law but feared the controversial author of the sex advice column Savage Love (pictured) might beat them to it.
In an interview with mediabistro.com, the editor/sex columnist describes his contrarian philosophy and his paper's brand of journalism ("The Stranger does advocacy journalism, and for the politicians we like we stump like hell for them"); opines on what separates good alt-weeklies from bad ("They have a really great sense of play") and names the ones he likes; and defines the daily-newspaper problem in a nutshell: "(I)f you don't have anything in your paper that's going to upset a five-year-old then 35-year-olds are going to look elsewhere for the kind of writing that appeals to them and speaks to them."
Dan Savage (in photo) and Tim Keck haven't fully participated in the electoral process lately, and their cross-town rivals are calling them on it. Seattle Weekly's Mark Fefer culled county voting records and determined that Editor Savage missed several recent elections and Publisher Keck isn't registered to vote. Fefer contrasts their actions with The Stranger's brash encouragement to its readers to join the political process.
When you call us wealthy monopolist bullies, "(d)o you mean this in the positive sense of wealthy, monopolist bullies?" New Times' Michael Lacey asks the Wall Street Journal, which last week ran a commentary by Daniel Akst on the New Times-Village Voice Media antitrust investigation. In his letter to the editor, Lacey says the Justice Dept. "is trying to create legal theory with this ... probe", which he calls a "stunning grab for unprecedented federal power." In a separate letter, Dan Savage, editor of The Stranger (and AAN Editorial Awards Host-for-Life), says his paper was "distressed to be lumped in with other alternative weekly papers."
Dan Savage, editor of The Stranger and author of the syndicated sex column "Savage Love," goes home to Chicago, where Chicago Tribune arts critic Sid Smith catches up with him. "How did this North Side Catholic boy, the son of a Chicago homicide cop, become America's down-and-dirty (and gay) sex columnist -- and, now, defender of the Left?" Smith asks, and then provides some answers.
The San Francisco Bay Guardian wins two first place awards in the National Newspaper Association's 2002 Better Newspaper Contest: Tali Woodward for Best Health Story, and Dan Zoll for Best Education/Literacy Story. Willy Stern of the Nashville Scene takes a first in Best Investigative or In-Depth Story or Series for his five-part dissection of The Tennessean.
From a rebellious underground paper in the '60s, The Georgia Straight has grown to a 120,000 weekly circulation institution in Vancouver, B.C. It hasn't gotten that way by resting on its hippie laurels. Publisher Dan McLeod demonstrates that by once again shaking up his sales department, firing a vice president and parting ways with the consultant who helped double the paper's sales. "There's going to be some loud howling, but it's a way to grow the business," McLeod tells AAN News.
In one of the most memorable events ever at an AAN convention, Dan Savage electrified the seventh annual Alternative Newsweekly Awards affair with a high-voltage performance that included nearly naked waiters and publishers shedding trousers. One attendee called it "the best hour of comedy I've ever seen." Savage's fatwah: every first-place winner had to drink a shot and shed an article of clothing. Two-thirds of the way in, he admitted, "I can't believe you are all playing along. The power of one pushy fag in AAN -- it's amazing."
His name is Dan Malone, and he won his Pulitzer in 1992 at the Dallas Morning News, reporting on abuses of power by Texas law enforcement officials. Malone joins an editorial staff headed by another ex-Morning News Pulitzer winner, Gayle Reaves. Meanwhile, ex-Houston Presser Anthony Mariani has accepted a position as the Weekly’s arts and entertainment editor.
Two old friends and business partners, David Cohen and Dan Pulcrano, complete their amicable divorce, splitting their alternative and community newspaper businesses. Metro Newspapers’ plans no major changes immediately and hopes for $10 million in revenues this year, CEO Pulcrano says.
