The Portland Mercury just turned two, and its editor may sometimes act like a terrible two, Joseph Gallivan writes in the Portland Tribune. William Steven Humphrey's antics range from flinging gunpowder "snaps" around the room to performing obscene acts with the doorknobs at rival Willamette Week, Gallivan writes. "He's mature, and he's a little boy and he's a disgusting pervert all at once," Dan Savage tells Gallivan. "I admire how a fortysomething can use the word 'pee-pee' as much as he does," Mark Zusman, editor of Willamette Week, says.
Tim Keck, publisher of The Stranger in Seattle, has a cash infusion from the Chicago Reader to turn up the heat on his competition. The Reader is now a minority shareholder in Index Newspapers LLC, a company formed early yesterday that now owns and operates The Stranger and The Portland Mercury in Portland, Ore. Keck’s first goal: increase circulation in both markets. “We’ve been bootstrapping it for 10 years,” Keck tells AAN News. “Now we are going to be aggressively growing the business.”
