The Stranger Redesigns, Creates Public Intern

august 16, 2007  09:48 am
"We held many discussions during our redesign process -- a fresher, more confusing Stranger hits the streets today -- about how we could better serve the public," editor Dan Savage writes. Somewhere along the way the paper came up with the idea of creating a new position: the public intern. "Just as the public editor works on behalf of readers, the public intern interns on behalf of readers. Steven [Blum] is your intern, Seattle, he works for you." His first assignment? Cleaning a Seattle bus. "I expected that the bus driver would kick me off at some point -- in my head my first report was going to end with an angry bus driver marching me down the aisle," Blum writes. "I'd already planned my passive aggressive response: 'People can shit their pants on the bus but I can't 409 the floor?'"