If you’ve never read “The Stranger.” you’ll be startled by how great it is. Could THEY buy the Weekly? The “NEW TO TOWN!” caption? Just a coincidence!
With a great owner, a disciplined editorial staff, and an improved sensibility, the OC Weekly is a money-making proposition. It’s even more than just that: it would be capable of huge local and national influence due to the continued degradation of The Register and the resulting news crater it leaves. (Disappearance of the Register’s editorial writers would only leave some small pops and an irritating sucking sound.) The problems with the Weekly are less in its star trio of writers, Gustavo Arellano, R. Scott Moxley, and Matt Coker — not that some of them are without flaws –than with an ownership that doesn’t really seem to care what they do. Arellano, for example, can tone down his excesses and quirks when he wants to, as with his radio interviews — but why should he when his bosses are apparently happy with his just being a click-bait character? Moxley can do excellent work on crime and corruption, but doesn’t seem to have a skeptical editor demanding that he back up his (often pre-determined) claims. Coker — well, let’s just pretend that I said something negative or skeptical about Coker so that he doesn’t feel excluded.
The new perfect owner for the Weekly would be Index Newspapers LLC and the right publisher is Tim Keck. Over the past 20 years, they have made The Stranger into a model alt-weekly: intelligent without being pedantic; snarky without being immature; political without being dismissive. They don’t snipe from the corners; they wade into the middle of controversy and engage it.
(And they know how to EDIT!)
The Stranger is everything that an alt-weekly should be — everything that the OC Weekly could be. Not only are they the right people to wade into OC and shake up its journalism, but they would electrify the political scene here. While Seattle is whiter and a lot less Latino than OC, what the two areas have in common are vibrant and wealthy LGBT communities, making it a natural fit here. DAN SAVAGE himself was the Editor-in-Chief of The Stranger when I lived in Seattle, ably assisted (and probably led a good part of the time by David Schmader, an excellent interesting and thoughtful writer about the local political and cultural scene), as well as an actor, Film Editor, and — if I recall correctly — even Managing Editor back when I lived in Seattle and was able to purchase his shoes cheaply at The Stranger’s first-ever charitable auction.
These — these are DAVE SCHMADER’S ROCKPORTS, suckers! I just WEAR ’em!
The Stranger — perhaps ironically, given the name it shares with existentialist Albert Camus’s best-known novel — is the opposite of nihilist; the writers make no bones about caring deeply about their community and celebrating (but also critically evaluating) those who would try to improve it. It also performs the magic trick of being able to take itself quite seriously while not taking itself too-seriously; in other words, it is earnest without being smug. It is a “punch-up” publication rather than a “punch-down” one; Dan Savage’s often brilliant column is a great example of its sensibility, just as Arellano’s is an only somewhat sanitized version of the current Weekly’s. New owners might convince Arellano that there’s more to writing than miming a drunken bar fight from the safety of one’s office chair, a level to which he easily sinks when left on his own. He could be seriously great if encouraged to act less like what our Ricardo Toro describes as a Cantinflas figure — and under the influence of The Stranger I’ll bet that he would be.
As for what would be in it for The Stranger’s current owners — well, let me flog an often-flogged donkey here. Orange County is the population of Iowa. It’s almost half the population of the state of Washington — about exactly half if you throw in Long Beach (as one should.) OC + LB is almost exactly the population of the entire Seattle Metropolitan area — but in only 10% of the land. It’s probably comparable to Metro Seattle in wealth; it has comparable universities (UCI and U of Washington are both great schools; Cal State Fullerton and Cal State Long Beach compare favorably to Western Washington and Evergreen State (respectively slightly north and slightly south of the Metropolitan Area; our private colleges are comparable to theirs. Oh yeah — and we’re right next to Los Angeles, where they could also expand (and probably a lot more effectively than Aaron Kushner did.)
With a bit over 3 million people (or 3½, including Long Beach) OC has more than enough readers available to enjoy The Stranger’s take on events. More to the point, there are enough out here to lead advertisers to put in more ads than the alt-weeklies traditional (and the Weekly’s overwhelming) sex, drugs, and music ads aimed at mid-20s males. Put The Stranger’s sensibility in Orange County and I think that they would make a killing. In Seattle, a dozen years ago, everyone with an alt-culture perspective was reading it — and ignoring its competitor, the Seattle Times, so completely that it eventually devolved into an empty shell.
And then there’s politics. The Stranger would become the focal point of progressive reform here. They would go after corrupt and nominal Democrats with fierce abandon. They’ve never ever had the wealth of local targets for criticism available in Darrell Issa, Dana Rohrabacher, Ed Royce, and MeMe Walters — and they would probably more effectively criticize Loretta Sanchez when she drifts off plumb as well. They’d like Linda Sanchez and Alan Lowenthal, I expect — but not uncritically. As for the dirt in OC — they, already a Pulitzer-Prize-winning publication, would go absolutely apeshit, like a raccoon in clover-scented garbage. Orange County is like a supersaturated solution ready to crystallize if someone plants the seed — and The Stranger could do it. I can’t think of a progressive publication better attuned to the sensibility of progressives and left-Libertarians in Orange County.
OC would pose challenges to The Stranger as well, because it would have to come to grips with the predominant (but largely politicall inert) local Latino community. (Our Asian community, still with a decent shot at becoming a majority of the County Board of Supervisors as a result of yesterday’s election, is also more powerful than Seattle’s despite the past predominance of Asian-American politicians like Gary Locke.) That’s not a bad thing at all: in grappling with Orange County, The Stranger would be grappling with the precise demographic shifts that challenge the nation as a whole — and that would be great for them to be able to do. It would raise their profile and influence nationally.
This is the right step for The Stranger and would be a great boost for Orange County. I’m sold — and I hope that The Weekly will be as well.
More booty obtained for a song at The Stranger’s first action. Of course, I’m posting this here only to tell Gustavo that I really HADN’T intended to write about him twice in one week, but I didn’t know that he was going to be so deeply in the news today. So: Rock On, Cabrón!
um, I don’t think OC Weekly’s demise is due to poor editing.
I think they’ve got the same problem the LA Times, the Chicago Sun, the Washington Post, and, yes, the OC Register does:
The obituaries section should more properly be called “the subscriber countdown.”
Even the Stranger has this isssue. The current circulation is 67000,
http://www.verifiedaudit.com/masthead.php?pid=4556&mid=000
apparently down from 87,000 in 2007
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stranger_(newspaper)#cite_note-1
notably, OC Weekly has a similar circulation.
The obituaries section should more properly be called “the subscriber countdown.”
Now that’s brilliant. Will the last remaining subscriber please turn out the lights.
Yes. Hmmm, did anything happen, economically, between 2007 and 2015?
The Stranger is the Stronger.
Bloviator: As usual, your bloviating is nothing but bloviations. If you actually knew anything about journalism instead of your bloviating blovations, you’d know that the Stranger and us have long had a mutual admiration. Unlike your bloviating blovate, I know Tim and Dan. Of course, your bloviations blind you to anything other than your bloviating.
Of course you have a great mutual admiration, which is why you dropped Dan Savage’s column in April 2013. And it’s probably why a Search of The Stranger’s archives show 78 hits for “Arellano” — the Arellano in the first hit being named Rebeca, the second named Alfonso, the third being named Isaiah, … sigh … the fourth being the Arellano Feliz cartel — oh! oh! The fifth and sixth both involve you! And they’re both from August 2006. Searching “Gustavo Arellano” yields 13 hits — three from this year, all from one mention of you by someone commenting on a story. (My compliments to your publicist.)
“Ask a Mexican” — 27 hits, again mostly from 2006. That must have been a good year for you (and for your mutual admiration society.) “OC Weekly” — better! 53 hits. They seem to like your music reviews.
Let’s see how it works the other direction: “Dan Savage” — 37 hits in the Weekly (though many fewer once you dropped his column.) Too many extraneous hits for “Stranger” to count them.
I am sorry that I felt I had to get mathematical on your ass. I would have preferred to just make fun of your repeating forms of the word “bloviate” without even now having any real idea of what it means.
Seriously, though — if “Tim and Dan” like you, get them to buy your “infernal rag” and turn it into something more heaven-sent. I’m sure you can be retrained. (Not “sure” sure, but willing to presume.)
Also, pay more attention to the phrase that starts “Be nice to people on your way up, because….”
I know it is not their business model, but I would love to see The Weekly do more (a lot more) political stuff at the County and even the city level. This was where the new ownership of the Register failed so spectacularly.
I think (well, hope, mostly) that there are enough readers out there to appreciate some hard-core investigations of the chicanery going on across the board, without reference to political affiliation of the sort that helps Republicans get away with so much in OC, and by extension, grants immunity to the few favored Dems who have managed to get themselves elected.
If a new owner could report the news in a hard-hitting manner without using profanity for shock or emotional value that would be an improvement in my old guy opinion.
*Don’t take away our Scott and Gustavo…….please!!!! The OC Weekly has been a fantastic addition to the “skip a rope” of the LA Times and OC Register. When they
say “freedom of the press”…..the OC Weekly has stood the test of time. Too many revelations have come out over the years. Whether you agree with them or not……the OC Weekly serves a great public service. Where else can you find those type of ads in Orange County?
Really?
“Where else can you find those type of ads in Orange County?”
How about any third rate pornie rag at the liquor store? You two are easily amused. No wonder Kurt Cobain blew his brains out!
Ads! Guess you can’t wait for the Super bowl. ..
*The Budwieser puppy commercial is priceless! Right up there with the Mean Joe Greene Coke and Kid Ad…from the ’70’s. Don’t be going into liquour stores…..buy your alcohol at Super Markets…..only. Try to make your addictions look good….eh? Throw in some “Skinny Pop Popcorn” so they think you are cultured. The English have a great show…you might watch: “Keeping Up Apprearances!” with Hyacinth and Richard!
I’m new in Orange County. A Portland, Oregon transplant (caring for aging parents with dementia). I miss The Stranger’s sister “Portland Mercury” and find that the OC Weekly is no longer. Can anyone direct me to an enlightened publication?
1. Voice of OC.
2. Us.
3. Surf City Voice.
4. LA Progressive (sometimes covers OC)
5. Depending on where you live, there may be a good local one, such as the Fullerton Observer.
6. If you find another good one that’s really active, let us know!
In other words, sadly, nothing you can hold in your hands at this point.
https://voiceofoc.org/
http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/
https://www.surfcityvoice.com/
I loved The Stranger when I lived in Seattle. I suggested in this very post that they should buy the OC Weekly, but it would be easier for them to just start an additional version of The Stranger down here. They’d make money. Hell, I could find enough good people to staff it in three days — starting with John Earl! And I expect (though don’t know) that Moxley would take that gig as well.