AAN News

The Stranger Does Its Best Time Magazine Impressionnew

In a recent issue of The Stranger, art director Aaron Huffman playfully borrows from Time magazine's "Great American Novelist" cover.
Society of Publication Designers  |  10-01-2010  11:27 am  |  Industry News

Designer Ron Reason Hearts The Strangernew

When design consultant Ron Reason browsed the newspaper display at AAN's Toronto Convention last week, he saw a lot of "squatty, square dimensions" and "covers [that] often sing, but the insides too often look, feel and smell like overpacked luggage." That was until he picked up copies of The Stranger, which he found so engaging, he decided to write an illustrated ode to it. (FULL STORY)
Design With Reason  |  07-21-2010  5:31 pm  |  Industry News

'Savage Love' iPhone App Released

Index Newspapers (parent company of The Stranger and Portland Mercury) and Night & Day Studios have released a Savage Love iPhone app, which provides "an interactive take on the love, sex, and relationship advice Dan Savage has been serving up for nearly 20 years," as the press release puts it. The app features a "Question of the Day" updated each afternoon, previous columns and podcasts, and exclusive text and video content. "We thought for sure that the app store would reject this but they approved in record time," Stranger publisher Tim Keck says. "I guess we've lost our touch." The app sells for $1.99, and is tagged in the iTune app store as having "Frequent/Intense Sexual Content or Nudity," "Frequent/Intense Profanity or Crude Humor," and "Frequent/Intense Mature/Suggestive Themes." In other words, everything you love about Savage Love to begin with. (FULL STORY)
Index Newspapers Press Release  |  06-04-2010  10:50 am  |  Press Releases

How The Stranger Uses 'Social Q&A' to Build Communitynew

The Stranger's "Questionland" is like other web Q&A features like Yahoo Answers, but as publisher Tim Keck points out, the local focus of the Stranger's readership makes it even more valuable. "It's different from throwing a question out into the whole wide world," he tells VentureBeat. "You run into these people on the street, and they know each other."
VentureBeat  |  03-09-2010  12:45 pm  |  Industry News

Musical Theater Version of Dan Savage Book Coming to Broadwaynew

Savage's 2000 book The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant has been turned into a musical by The New Group and will launch on Broadway in April. The Savage character will be played by Christopher Sieber, who has been nominated for Tony Awards for his performances in Monty Python's Spamalot and Shrek The Musical.
BroadwayWorld.com  |  02-17-2010  1:10 pm  |  Industry News

Bay Guardian/SF Weekly Case Back in Court Today

A San Francisco judge today heard arguments on whether SF Weekly should be forced to give half of its advertising revenue to the San Francisco Bay Guardian as part of the Guardian's continuing efforts to collect on the 2008 judgment in the predatory pricing suit between the two papers. The judge issued a "late tentative ruling" that suggested he will do just that, and he said he will give the final ruling soon. Meanwhile, the Guardian has asked a judge to add Village Voice Media, LLC and Village Voice Media Holdings, LLC to the companies that make up the Weekly's parent company in the judgment. (When the Guardian's suit was initially filed, the Weekly was still owned by pre-merger New Times.) A hearing on that matter has been set for March 12. The Weekly has said it is waiting to make any payments to the Guardian until it exhausts its appeals. MORE: Seattle Weekly wonders why The Stranger is sending a reporter to San Francisco to cover this, when Stranger editor Dan Savage's sex column runs in many papers that SF Weekly's parent company owns.
AAN News  |  02-11-2010  6:31 pm  |  Industry News

Dan Savage: If You Want a Media Job, Be Prepared to Work for Freenew

"I hear all the time from people who are just starting out who want media careers, who want to be writers, who want to broadcast," The Stranger editor and "Savage Love" columnist says in an appearance on the Too Beautiful To Live podcast. "Then the next thing out of their mouth, when they're applying for jobs, is that they need $60,000-$70,000 a year. I laugh and look at them and say 'The first three years that I did the column I got nothing." Savage adds: "There's no job in media for anyone anymore who isn't willing to do it for free at the outset." You can listen to the entire show, where Savage discusses everything from Dr. Drew to monetizing his "Savage Love" podcast, here (Savage comes on in the second half).
MyNorthwest.com  |  02-04-2010  9:14 am  |  Industry News

The Stranger Flexing Real Political Muscle in Seattlenew

"While it may be easy to dismiss Seattle's most eccentric weekly paper, there is growing evidence that The Stranger may be more in tune with Emerald City voters than the other major papers in the area," writes Mike Noon in the University of Washington's student newspaper. "The Stranger has some serious political clout in Puget Sound politics." Noon points to the city's recent mayoral election as proof, saying the alt-weekly's "enthusiastic support of mayor-elect Mike McGinn was likely one of the key factors in his victory."
The Daily  |  12-01-2009  9:20 am  |  Industry News

Suspected Seattle Arsonist Uses Alt-Weeklies to Start Firesnew

A 46-year-old man who was charged with 11 arsons this week "appears to be a fan of alternative weeklies," the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports. According to court documents and police reports, Kevin Todd Swalwell has used both The Stranger and Seattle Weekly to help start fires in the Greenwood neighborhood.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer  |  11-18-2009  10:33 am  |  Industry News

The Stranger's Books Editor Talks About How He Manages His Sectionnew

Paul Constant, who says he thinks he's "one of the only books page editors left at an alternative weekly in America," tells the Rejectionist blog how he chooses books to include in The Stranger. "Basically, I read what I want. I figure, at a page and a half a week and with a very, very small freelance budget, there's no way I'm going to do a comprehensive books page, New York Times-style," he says. "So what I think is important is to keep track of my reading life."
The Rejectionist  |  11-09-2009  10:15 am  |  Industry News

Handful of Alt-Weekly Pieces End Up in 'Best Food Writing 2009'

AAN News has just received a copy of Da Capo's Best Food Writing 2009, and it is chock full of alt-weekly talent. Included in the collection are stories from City Pages' Rachel Hutton ("Spam: It's Not Just for Inboxes Anymore"), New Times Broward-Palm Beach's John Linn ("Highway to Hog Heaven"), SF Weekly's Peter Jamison ("Out of the Wild"), The Stranger's Bethany Jean Clement ("The Beauty of the Beast"), Washington City Paper's Tim Carman ("How Not to Hire a Chef"), and Westword's Jason Sheehan ("The Last of the Great $10 Steaks"). The book also includes a selection from Houston Press food writer Robb Walsh's book on oysters, and is slated to be released this fall.
AAN News  |  09-02-2009  4:54 pm  |  Honors & Achievements

Dan Savage Working on Potential HBO Shownew

The Stranger's editorial director and syndicated columnist has been in Los Angeles this month working with HBO on a "presentation pilot" for a potential TV show. The show will have a "focus on current events and cultural trends with sex as the filter," Savage writes. "Basically, my sex-advice column -- but on the teevee!" The pilot is taping on Aug. 27 -- you can sign up for tickets here. A Craigslist ad offers a glimpse into a potential topic for the pilot: men who wear chastity belts.
The Stranger  |  08-21-2009  9:29 am  |  Industry News

Alt-Weekly Alums Come Together at Seattle News Websitenew

Publicola was started in January by Josh Feit, a former news editor of The Stranger, to cover state and local politics in a time where fewer reporters are ensconced in state houses across the country. Feit has attracted some "significant" money, and recently hired another Stranger alum, Erica Barnett, as a full-time staff reporter.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer  |  06-30-2009  10:16 am  |  Industry News

The Stranger Runs Photo That Got Photographer Arrestednew

Last Friday Seattle police arrested a 29-year-old man and banned him from a REI store after he used his phone to photograph two security guards who were servicing an ATM inside the store. The Stranger put the photo on the cover of this week's issue, and has a story on the controversy.
Photo District News  |  05-15-2009  1:58 pm  |  Industry News

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