Seattle’s Smaller Weekly Watch
This is going to be the final installment of Seattle’s Smaller Weekly Watch. We’ll get to why in a moment, but first a little history…
This regular Slog item began when the Weekly referred to The Stranger as “Seattle’s smaller weeklyā€¯ in a news story about their then-rumored, now-transpired sale to what was then New Times and is now Village Voice Media. Once upon a time the Weekly was the bigger weekly, but in the last few years the Stranger overtook the Weekly. Today our page count is consistently higher than theirs, and this irritates the dopes, grandmas, and old hippies down on Western Avenue. On the flip side, all of us up here on Pine get irritated when the Weekly lies about their size relative to the Stranger—we also get annoyed when they lie about their relevance, influence, and sexual prowess, but we’ll let that go for now. Thing is, we worked our butts off to be Seattle’s bigger weekly paper, and I wasn’t going to let liars at Seattle’s smaller weekly paper get away with telling their big, fat fibs.
Now, this may be of little interest to anyone who isn’t employed at the Weekly or the Stranger. Yes, it’s inside baseball. And that’s why I’ve kept Seattle’s Smaller Weekly Watch out of the print edition of the paper. It’s always been here, where it belongs, because the infinite space the Internet provides is the perfect arena for settling scores and petty one-upmanship.
I neglected to post Seattle’s Smaller Weekly Watch last week, so this is a double-header. Let’s get to the numbers, and then I’ll explain why this is the last installment:
For the week of February 9-15, 2006:
Seattle Weekly: 92 pages.
The Stranger: 120 pages.
For the week of February 16-22, 2006:
Seattle Weekly: 80 pages.
The Stranger: 100 pages.
This week’s double-barreled installment is the final one because I’ve decided, after consulting with the refs, that it’s time to invoke the slaughter rule. We were 24 pages bigger than the Weekly last week; we’re 20 pages bigger than they are this week. The Weekly hasn’t done an 80 page paper in February since 1996. Seattle Smaller Weekly Watch had a nice run, but the point is made, and it’s time to retire it.
If they ever start spouting off again, Dan, I want you to bring it back. If they ever say "The Stranger, Seattle's smaller weekly" or "The Seattle Weekly, the only weekly that does good, tough journalism", you've got to hit back.
Seriously, I remember when the Weekly really had earned it's cred, but the SW is a prize fighter who should have long ago retired from the ring.
I proclaim the winner: The Stranger