Cocktail Compass, which the alt-weekly rolled out last week, gives iPhone users information on the happy hours currently happening at bars close by. The app allows users to search for bars that have specific attributes, like wifi, dancing or outdoor seating, and it also includes a feature to call a local cab company when the drinking is done. Seattle Weekly responded to the Stranger's news by saying it had launched "the Ripper," a "game-changing new rotary phone app."
The Stranger's editorial director and syndicated sex columnist has been tapped to reprise his role as host of the AltWeekly Awards Luncheon at this year's AAN Convention.
In a blog post on Monday titled "I'm Running for Mayor," The Stranger's editorial director threw his hat in the mayoral ring, saying "my entire platform is this: If elected I pledge to resign the office of mayor 24 hours after I'm sworn in." Seattle officials are trying to figure out if Savage is really mounting a run or just joking around. City rules say candidates must file paperwork with the city clerk within two weeks of publicly announcing an intention to run. "We've got to figure out whether he's serious or not," Ethics and Elections Commission chairman Wayne Barnett tells the Seattle Times.
"(VVM) ... is using a social-networking company it owns to erode the wall between editorial content and advertising by promoting its advertisers under the guise of community buzz," reports The Stranger. The Seattle alt-weekly made the claim after scouring the user-generated reviews on the Yelp-like LikeMe.net and purportedly discovering that a majority were thumbs-up recommendations written by VVM ad staff. But in a response posted on Seattle Weekly's website, VVM says its employees posted the reviews to "test drive" the new site, which had yet to be officially announced, and that the number of posts do not constitute a majority. VVM also notes that earlier reports that it owns a controlling interest in the new "local recommendation engine" are erroneous.
The plot of Lynn Shelton's Humpday centers on two straight college friends who decide to make a movie for HUMP!, the real-life amateur porn contest produced each year by The Stranger. "It's about the limitations and occasional absurdity of straightness, specifically male straightness," Shelton tells The Stranger. "These two guys try to 'outdude' each other by trying to 'do' each other, which is kind of ironic." Salon critic Andrew O'Hehir says Humpday -- which found a distributor this week -- is an "early candidate for Sundance breakout hit." MORE: Read an interview with Shelton at IFC.com.
"Since it's printed in Yakima, a semi truck filled with tens of thousands of copies of The Stranger is sitting on the other side of the 10-feet-deep body of water that used to be known as I-5," editor Christopher Frizzelle wrote last Thursday. The alt-weekly reprinted the entire issue at the Seattle Times printing facility and distributed it a little late. "Enjoy this week's paper," Frizzelle wrote. "It was very expensive."
Eleven gay bars received letters yesterday from someone claiming to be in the possession of ricin, a deadly poison. "Your establishment has been targeted," the letter begins. "I have in my possession approximately 67 grams of ricin with which I will indiscriminately target at least five of your clients." The Stranger also received a letter, which was addressed to the attention of "Obituaries," according to editorial director Dan Savage. It said that the paper should "be prepared to announce the deaths of approximately 55 individuals all of whom were patrons of the following establishments on a Saturday in January," before listing a handful of gay bars.
In a round table discussion with representatives of other Seattle news organizations, Tim Keck discusses how The Stranger fits in to the transformation of the news business. He says that 2007 was the paper's best year ever, and '08 was slightly down due to the tanking economy. While he says that The Stranger has "probably three times the number" of online readers, he notes that print circulation hasn't dropped that much either. "The media compan[ies] that can navigate different mediums [are] going to be the ones that survive," Keck says. "The thing that really moors them is no longer the medium -- a print publication -- it's going to be the community and the brand."
In collaboration with Travel Portland and Amtrak Cascades, Ace Hotel and The Stranger have launched Trainsetters -- a program that encourages train travel from Seattle to Portland and supports Portland's independent shops this holiday season. The program is aimed at an emerging travel market: younger travelers who are sick of the hassle and high costs of driving and air travel, and who prefer the train's practical and aesthetic benefits. Trainsetters will be promoted via design collaborations between The Stranger and Ace Hotel, including postcards, posters and custom coffee sleeves on the train, ads in The Stranger, and also on the web at www.trainsetters.com.
"I get it, I get it: you're not all bigots and haters, and people marched against Prop 8 in Salt Lake City this weekend," Savage writes in response to Salt Lake Tribune columnist Sean P. Means' invitation for Savage to visit the state to see the "real" Utah. "But I'm not ready to make nice -- on purpose or by accident -- with the bigots and haters from Magic Underpants Inc. who donated money and time to Prop 8." MORE: Savage has been "a teeny bit over the top with his rhetoric, Salt Lake City Weekly's John Saltas says, before reprising Means' invite and offering to pay Savage's way. "We'll introduce him to local GLBT leaders, many of whom are equally pissed that he walked away from them."
