Affecting Cover, Bad Ad Placement

This week's cover of the sometimes-hyperbolic Stranger is masterful in its understatement. Nothing but the masthead and a single image that takes a minute to process: it's the siding of the house where Saturday morning's shootings happened.

As a .jpg., it's stark, simple, and affecting. But the impact is somewhat lessened in print by the giant, red-heavy Tower Records ad printed on the inside cover. That ad's copy bleeds into the cover, and at first glance we thought it was a faux-palimpsest of sorts.

Maybe the following is a morbid or insensitive thought, we aren't sure...but here it is: If a more appealing printed version of this cover will help friends grieve for friends, or help media folks learn how to tastefully deal with tragedy, maybe the Stranger will release it as a poster or something.