The Stranger Runs Frizzelle Up the Masthead

At the moment, Seattlest is an Enemy of Slog, due in part to this critical post on Seattle's aging weeklies. (In retrospect, we should not have implied that Dan Savage was getting older. He's evergreen, like many of our trees.)

But we're not bitter -- it's an honor just to be listed! -- but puzzled by the news that Dan's getting kicked upstairs and arts editor Christopher Frizzelle is now Editor di tutti. There's so much going on at the Stranger these days, it makes sense to make Dan a brand director of sorts -- but it's fairly clear that as a newspaper, the Stranger could use an editor with more journalism experience, not less. Whatever else Frizzelle brings to the table, we're not sure he's got the chops to lead the news webolution already in progress. But this is why we don't bet on sports. We have blind spots.

One of the oddest things about Christopher Frizzelle's recent promotion to Editor is that the Stranger didn't dish about it first. The Slog, an almost too-transparent window on the inner workings of the group, was silent about it until the evening of the 19th (duh duh DUH!), when Dan Savage posted this "nothing to see here, move along, move along" notice -- beat to the punch by Regina Hackett's post at her P-I blog.

Compare and contrast -- Dan says:

Christopher's primary areas of focus will be features and the back of the book, aka arts, while my primary areas of focus will be front of the book and the web. This isn't a massive change. The Stranger has always been a group effort, and editors and associate editors and the odd intern have all contributed to the direction of the paper in ways that only editors-in-chief might at other publications.

The truth is, I never left you... Sorry, that tune just popped into our head for no reason. Regina has Frizzelle cutting to the chase: "I'll report to Dan, who is now editorial director, and everybody else reports to me."

Regina's post also has a lengthy comment thread that suggest Frizzelle's Weekly-era bridges are still smoldering. The Stranger has already roasted Frizzelle itself, but some people are still steamed. (While on Dan's post, MHD asks the question everyone really wants to know: "When is A. Birch Steen going to get the promotion he so richly deserves?")

It's a risky time for weeklies in general; it'll be interesting to see if the Stranger's bet on youth, and (some would say) literary chops, will pay off. Over here at Seattlest, we don't hold with editing at all, so we're clearly hypocritical about calling for more experience with it.

Christopher Frizzelle photo via arttogo via MediaBistro