David Brewster, who sold his interest in the Seattle alt-weekly in 1997, has recruited two other former Weekly staffers to work on Crosscut, which will cover Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and parts of British Columbia, according to the Seattle Times. Former Managing Editor Chuck Taylor will be Crosscut's editor, while former Editor-in-Chief Knute "Skip" Berger will write for the site, set to launch March 12. Brewster says he started working on Crosscut about 18 months ago, to counteract "the growing fatalism of Seattle journalism."
A wordsmith at Seattle Weekly who subscribes to the word-a-day email from Merriam-Webster Dictionary noticed a familiar name in her inbox this morning. A quotation from the Weekly's former Editor in Chief, Knute Berger, appeared as a usage example for the term "instauration." The complete definition and quote can be seen on Post Alley, Seattle Weekly's blog.
The Weekly's editor in chief tells the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that his autonomy has decreased since the merger between New Times and Village Voice Media, but that he was not forced out by the new ownership. Berger has left the alt-weekly twice before, each time to be asked back. Berger announced his resignation July 3 on his blog. "I've been through four ownership groups, five publishers, and have seen the paper into the online era. Now we're six months into the Village Voice/New Times merger era, and I've decided it's time to be a free-range mossback again," he wrote.
Knute "Skip" Berger signs on with Seattle Weekly after a two-year hiatus from his job as editor in chief. He says he brought over Chuck Taylor from Seattle Times as managing editor because he was so impressed with Taylor's work on the strikers' version of the daily in 2000-2001. Seattle native Berger says he's a "mossback with no intention of moving anywhere else," and glad to be back in the alternative world.
