I haven’t read the Weekly in years. Since the sale to VVM, really. Between the stories that hardly ever felt local, and writers I never got used to, I never picked it up, and I think that was probably true of a lot of the casual readers. I had more or less stopped reading before it became apparent that their business model relied in part on ads for child prostitution and it wasn’t a tough decision not to read them at all after that.
So it’s for the good that they were just bought by Sound Publishing. Here’s hoping it’ll get more of its local flavor back, and that there’s a business model that makes sense. The Weekly still has a constituency, even though I don’t read it. More newspapers is generally better for Seattle.
Improved how? I don’t read the Weekly anymore either, but Black will gut it like he has every other paper he ever bought. His idea of investing in journalism is to NOT invest in journalism.
They should rehire the old crew, including that female cartoonist who died, I forget her name.
“Black Press is known in the industry for running lean operations intensely focused on containing costs.”
That means reporters get paid $40 a week.
@1,
It was more hopeful than evidence based that they’ll get better.
“On Aug. 17, 2012, Black announced he is putting forth a proposal to build a $13.2 billion oil refinery in Kitimat, B.C.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Holmes_Black
Roger Rabbit Commentary: He doesn’t have financing or community support, but I’m sure his 940,000bpd refinery can count on favorable editorial support from the 127 newspapers he owns.
Heh. I didn’t know this “hick town reporter” still had a pulse..
http://blogs.seattleweekly.com.....te_gop.php
Should really fly under the next tight fisted management..
@2 Thanks.
As an SW alum who left when VVM execs parachuted in, lied to my face, and gutted the paper, I’m hopeful but not optimistic that the Weekly can become a presence in the local media landscape again. On the one hand, actual journalism requires investing in staff and developing an audience at a time when alternative papers in general around the country are hemorrhaging money and The Stranger dominates the local alt landscape. There are easier ways to make money in the short term that don’t involve turning it back into a real paper. Reviving SW would require the new owners to be patient and rebuild the brand, in an industry not known for long-term thinking.
OTOH, the new regime could scarcely be more venal and contemptuous of its natural audience than the old one was. On that score, even if Sound Publishing turns it into The Little Nickel with more ads, it’d be an improvement.
Black also owns Little Nickel. In fact, it kinda looks like there isn’t a whole lot left that he doesn’t own, The Stranger being a notable exception. Maybe someday he’ll take a $150 million Bothell printing plant off Frank Blethen’s hands, along with a dilapidated Republican Party newsletter affectionately known as “Fairview Fanny.”
@7 I haven’t read SW since you left. You were the whole damn paper. Well, most of it. And who knows, if David Black gets his Kitimat refinery maybe he’ll use oil money to subsidize Little Nickel journalism and the reporters will get a raise to $42 a week.
Hey, that link to the story about SW’s child prostitution ads is busted. It doesn’t work!
Here’s what Seattle Venality says about child prostitute trafficking. Obviously it’s a subject they’re deeply embedded in. Enjoy.
http://www.seattleweekly.com/r.....stitution/
I occasionally read the SW between buses, because…well, it’s there for the taking at the bus stop. Also, we personally know Mike Seely and his family–he and our daughter went to school together. The whole thing’s been gruesome to watch. Mike must be staying there mostly because he can claim to be the “boss” of something. At the rate things are going he could end up being “boss” of an empty room.
“They should rehire the old crew, including that female cartoonist who died, I forget her name.”
Somehow, that sounds exactly like something the rodent would say!
@13 I did say that. What’s your point? Since when is a rabbit a “rodent”? Has my species been reclassified?
The Seattle Weekly is an excellent newspaper. It readily absorbs cat urine and is a fine addition to the area under my cat’s litter box. The stray litter even absorbs most of the Weekly’s bullshit.
I used to read The Weekly before VVM ran Geov and the other great reporters off. Now I just let my kitties enjoy it. Here’s hoping that will change.
@14 The application of that particular moniker to Mr. Rabbit has an awfully familiar ring to it, doesn’t it?
16. Roger is a rodent :) and he helped to reclassify his own species.
Signed,
Mrs. Roger Rabbit
#15. Agree. The Seattle ‘Weakly’ is not to be read just rabbit hutch recycled
I skip by the Weakly to pick up the Stranger for local information and goings on whether it is a pithy story about local politics or concerts and music reviews.