Thursday, January 8, 2009
Housekeeping Where (the Hell) Is the Print Edition of The Stranger?
Posted by Christopher Frizzelle on Thu, Jan 8, 2009 at 3:05 PM
Since it's printed in Yakima, a semi truck filled with tens of thousands of copies of The Stranger is sitting on the other side of the 10-feet-deep body of water that used to be known as I-5. We tried Snoqualmie Pass first (closed due to avalanche conditions). We tried White Pass (closed to mudslide). We tried air freight. We tried water. We tried throwing the phone at the wall and screaming at everyone the publisher could find at four in the morning.
But all is not lost: Today we reprinted the issue at the Seattle Times printing facility in Kent (no joke) and it will be on streets this afternoon.
Enjoy this week's paper. It was very expensive.
[Update! Are we union-busting environmental-hate-criminals? It is addressed here.]
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1
And where are the Slog Calendars? Also on the other side of Lake I-5. If the freeway is miraculously open, I'm going down there and getting them on Sunday. If not, well... fuck. I'm trying.
3
My man Nico can print them up for you LOCALLY cheap. It's too bad you go so far away when my man Nico can do them for you. He's good stuff.
4
You should have asked Rick Warren's friend Martin Ssempa to have his satan worshiper friends transport it under Lake Victoria for you.
5
So, The Stranger is printed in Yakima and Seattle Times is printed in Kent.
Are any Seattle publications actually printed in Seattle?
Are any Seattle publications actually printed in Seattle?
7
If it's printed in fucking Yakima, couldn't yall arrange to drop off a bundle or two in Ellensburg? They could just throw one out the window of the truck from I-90 into the Bar 14 parking lot. We'd love it! And since it's ALREADY HERE and everything.....
8
@5 The Times and PI are printed in Bothell, actually. The facility in Kent is a subsidiary. But to answer your question; No.
11
People actually still read the dead-tree version? Who knew. I've been reading it on line for at least the last 2 years.
14
Does ECB know about all this pointless driving around? Why hasn't she thrown a bitch fit about it yet?
16
I-5 closed to the south? The passes closed to the east? Water to the west and Canadia up north? WE ARE CUT OFF! LIKE IN TREMORS!
18
So what's going to happen to the copies over on the east side of the Cascades? Tell me you're going to paper the tri-cities with them.
20
The Seattle Weekly is always out on time. Plus they don't furn a shitload of fossil fuels trucking tons of newsprint accross the pass
22
I don't know why I'm surprised, but my jaw actually dropped when I read that you print these in Yakima (local dollars?) and then ship them over here (enviroment?). I honestly don't care personally since I read online, but it does seem fairly incongruent with some particular Stranger pet issues. You learn something new every day.
23
@17 Wouldn't do them much good. They'd get through the mountains, but the truck would end up on the south side of the I-5 flooding. Still couldn't make it to Seattle.
26
You're the same guys who (understandably) rail against the wasteful practice of printing out phonebooks, when all the information in them is easily available online. How is the print version of the Stranger any different?
At the very least, you should seriously consider shifting to 'subscription only' for folks who want a hard copy, and printing them locally.
At the very least, you should seriously consider shifting to 'subscription only' for folks who want a hard copy, and printing them locally.
27
@20 - yeah but who the fuck wants to read about fish sticks and female martial artists all the time? Also Dickwipe, the Weakly has a bigger distro area hence more driving to deliver their drivel and the Stranger sticks to the metro areas, so looks like it evens out. Still though, print sucks.
29
ps- though if they really loved us, they could drive through Portland, on up to Astoria, Aberdeen, and on to Seattle. It would be 9 hours, but it would be here...
31
@29: US 12 is closed in both directions from the Grays Harbor/Thurston County line to Moon Road in Rochester due to water over the roadway.
32
I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that the Yakima printer is a non-union shop, right? When you could use union printers nearby?
If so, your hypocrisy knows no bounds.
If so, your hypocrisy knows no bounds.
33
@10: Wrong. The Times owns the Yakima newspaper, which has nothing to do with the printing plant the Stranger uses.
36
I have a question. Perhaps I should send it to Ask Science. Is reading The Stranger (and slog) online actually any greener than reading the normally-printed-in-Yakima hard copy? I mean, it's not as if the interwebs runs on compost. All them server farms in Quincy? They use a shitload of electricity, both for running the computers and keeping them cool. How would one even figure out how to compare the carbon footprint of, say, going to the coffeeshop once a week and reading the print version, and reading it on line, as well as checking in with slog on a regular basis? Folks talk about the internet as being green, but part of me suspects that all it does is put its pollution somewhere out of sight.
37
@32- not only is the Yakima shop non-union, but they are probably Mexican Americans who are seriously underpaid so that the Stranger can max out profits
43
@33 - Yakima is owned by the Times. The Stranger is printed at the Yakima paper = the Stranger is the Times bitch
46
Hey, "OMG BE LOCAL/GREEN" people...
...please do the greenest, most immediately-local act you can do: FUCKING KILL YOURSELVES.
...please do the greenest, most immediately-local act you can do: FUCKING KILL YOURSELVES.
47
I can't imagine going without my dose of Slog, so I'm sending in $10 to help cover the cost of the second press run. And I can't even find the print copy on Bainbridge Island when the passes aren't closed. This is a dangerous time for journalism in America. The presses are closing all around us. So, the publishers of the Stranger need to keep their advertisers happy. If the paper doesn't hit the streets, the advertisers won't want to pay for their ads. No paper, no money, no reporters, no Slog. If you use the resource you better find a way to keep it alive.
48
@36 you just totally blew my mind! do we get to count the carbon cost of making computer parts and do an overall computer:book ratio? I guess you would have to do a computer vs about two year's worth of books (or however long the average computer lasts these days). Although you do get other functions out of a computer as well... and how do you calculate one person's share of the internet? Local service farm/# of people it services... but a book lasts forever and the internet disappears when your computer does... and don't forget the electricity to run a computer... lots of impossible math but it gives you some cool shit to think about. I'll be looking forward to dear science in a couple of weeks.
49
@48 "I'll be looking forward to dear science in a couple of weeks."
Ha! The gauntlet has been thrown, JG. Two weeks, ya hear?
Seriously, have fun figuring this out Jonathon. I'm really looking forward to your take on this (take yer time, tho). Frequent SLOG updates about your methodology and progress would be fun to follow.
Ha! The gauntlet has been thrown, JG. Two weeks, ya hear?
Seriously, have fun figuring this out Jonathon. I'm really looking forward to your take on this (take yer time, tho). Frequent SLOG updates about your methodology and progress would be fun to follow.
50
Hatin' on the print edition makes me sad... :^(
I loves me some newsprint Stranger! The Stranger - Seattle's Only Newspaper, indeed!
I loves me some newsprint Stranger! The Stranger - Seattle's Only Newspaper, indeed!
51
COMMENT DELETED: Sock-puppetry
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54
why are most of you HATERS!!! I love the print edition of the Stranger! It's my weird little ritual to read on Thursday with my one plus at a local pub to plan the weekend. For you haters that complained about outsourcing,last time I checked Yakima was still in WASHINGTON and not the P-Pines!Do you know how expensive it is to print a newspaper? have you noticed how SMALL, the STRANGER is getting because of the lack of advertising? maybe we should all kick in five bucks to keep the good times rolling! whew...okay...off my soap box.
55
While I'm not incensed about the Stranger being printed in Yakima, it would be interesting to see a summary of the reasons (financial mostly, I'd guess) that preceded that decision. How much more expensive is it to print it locally, union vs. non-union, etc?
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