The Stranger Temporarily Lays Off 18 Employees



All of you at the Stranger are in my heart. Let's get through this together.


That's really tough. Big mistake letting your art critic go, Jasmyne Keimig.

I suggest retiring that verbose bloviating Marxist columnist instead.


Fuck, really enjoy contributions from all of them. Sorry. Hope all are back soon.


This is awful. I’m going to keep throwing money at you. Fuck Trump, and fuck this fucking virus.


I am so sorry to hear this. I’ve donated what I can. The stranger has meant so much to the city, I can’t imagine Seattle without it.


Sorry you all are going through this. What a bummer for everyone. Hang in there.


shit gets Real

please Re-Hire Lester (first) (Buzz off bicepsual), Katie, Dave and Jasmyne
and the other folks too ASAP cause without them, who are you?!

oh and Fire a couple of those Trolls
perhaps we can Sell them to the Chinese
they won't bring much -- not their fault!

Where are we with possible subcriptions
and Edit buttons --
WITH comment history or bust

and separate 'reply threads'
And what about Healthcare!

Thanks for the Times, new skinny Stranger!


Don’t hire any TERFs when you start publishing again.


Lester was the most diverse journalist you had, too bad he is gone now. Hope The Stranger can bring the gang back soon.


I am so sorry to hear of this.I just sent The Stranger a donation, contributing what I can.
We are all in this together. Everyone stay healthy and safe.

Agreed and seconded with:
@1: Lissa, @4 mike blob, @5 schmacky, @6 Lynnhoodlum, @7 lastlight, and @8 kristofarian.
Schmacky should get a gold star for nailing it.


18 real people laid off, and most of @9's post demands spending to reforming the comments thread to suit his desires?


The Stranger is suspending production of our print issue. Well, The Stranger is finally going green.


Hang in there kids, truly sorry you are temporarily out of work. It's fucking ruthless how quickly this financial collapse is impacting local business. Scary, and of course the government is unable and/or unwilling to do anything but pump money into the big business. Sucks.


Lastly, you basically fired 18 people, and the SLOG article preceding this one is by still employed Charles Mudede about how he brought flower to dead raccoon.


“ Lester was the most diverse journalist you had”

Was it the man-bun?

Just sent some money. Good luck.


@18 An article he wrote in 2017 as well. He’s not even bothering to phone them in from Oddfellows


four teen* -- your empathy is underwhelming
meanwhile Stranger's gotta restructure
why wait till too late?

*I have my Very Own Troll.
I'm SOMEbody!
Thank you!


A sad day, and tough times for many fine people and good organizations. My donations can't go far or wide enough.


I hope they are able to collect unemployment. And find different jobs. This clearly did not need to happen, but the people in charge feel it will make people value their product more (and apparently the begging for money did not work). My bet is the Stranger will be more irrelevant than before when things get "back to normal."


So sad to hear this! Sending >> all of your ways...


Eighteen good people gone. I hope that it is temporary.



That’s: So sad to hear this! Sending >> all of your ways...


[Offense: Sneaking in Illegal Characters]

How about: Sending good vibes all of your ways! 😎


@25: Clearly it did need to happen. And they clearly didn't want to, so please don't blame them.


Jesus fucking Christ.


oh man. this is just the beginning. the economic, human and social impacts of this are gonna be atrocious. i'm very sorry for you all.


Take one for the team, Charles...please


Aw fcuk.

Also, fuvk all of you commentards specifying people to fire or not rehire. Or your mal-sentiments. You are shitmouths, and I hope Sithrak torments you in your sleep. Forever.


Damn you Jeff Bezos!


I’d like to point out that the same contingent that posts their glee at seeing Seattle the epicentre of this plague event.

These people are not Seattle. They hate Seattle and would love to see it die. Their opposition to Charles is rooted in a hatred of a political philosophy that has been a part of this region’s cultural fabric since the very beginning.

I regret to inform you- Raindrop, the troll who opens a new account for every post just to get a username that’s relevant to the topic, dhdb, swiftress, and Ken, that this city and this paper are not dying. However, if all or any of you would like a free plane ticket to Wuhan so you can lick some doorknobs, I will be happy to pay your airfare. Or, maybe to North Sentinel Island, if you’d rather find the one inhabited place on Earth that this virus hasn’t touched.

It appears this virus has a special liking for the demographic most likely to vote for conservatives. Hmm. I wonder if you idiots should really be cheering it on so enthusiastically since it appears you’re going to get your asses kicked when your voter base is all six feet below ours.


@38: You're so dense. We love to troll Charles, as he does us in every streamy prose epiphany he writes. He's provocative and generates views so of course he's stay and should stay.

But, on the other hand ...



I will gladly buy you a plane ticket. I’ll even pay for the taxi to whatever airport is closest to the rock you crawl out from under.


@38 was like:

You people are behave inhumanely without compassion.

And I wish death upon you all!


@40 my nickel's on Payne Field. From there you could fly him to Fresno, but no even you are that cruel.


@38 Thanks for informing me. Take the money you would have spent on the ticket to Wuhan and donate it to the Red Cross.

Your political philosophy is as dead as Karl Marx. Bernie Sanders is finished, this time for good. As your star fades, we can only laugh. Soon you will be nothing but a white dwarf.



North Sentinel it is, then.



Zimbabwean Marxism?


How about North of the Ship Canal and south of 85th??

Hey, I sent money to The Stranger. Not even a tax deductible donation at that. Besides wishing death on people, what have you offered?


Also, Wandering Star you need to stop thrashing about widely and panicking. You're scaring the womenfolk and children.

Time to man up. It's unbecoming to say the least.


@49 Rename it “Pravda Stranger”?


Thank you and good luck to everyone impacted by this. I've been a faithful reader of this rag since the very start, and after watching SO many other alternative publications in Seattle fold over the years, I sincerely hope "the Stranger" is able to weather this storm, rehire everyone, and remain a vital voice in the local press for years to come. Godspeed.


I’m not wishing death on anybody, I don’t know what you’re talking about. All I’m doing is buying plane tickets. If you can fight your way out, you live. And since you’re all into the whole dog eat dog, everybody for himself bullshit, that should be right up your alley.

Look, think of this as a vaccine. You lick the doorknobs, you get sick, if you live, you’re immune. Or, you’re on an island far away from the virus. Total protection, either way. All you gotta do is survive.

I’m doing you a favour, assholes. Now, get on the plane.


White-knighting identitarian lefty doubles down on wishing death on everyone slightly less left and beyond. Well there's a surprise!

Is rewarded with grateful oral from helpless capable adults he is valiantly protecting!



I’ve heard you’re not very good at oral. Something about herpes, I dunno. No personal experience with you myself, I’m just going on your reputation as the local bicycle.


Now, while that asshole has a mouthful of herpes, Swiftress herself actually is a herpe. I mean, look at her pic. Cracked, bleeding lips, nasty sores everywhere. Look at that. I mean, it has to hurt something awful. All that pus.

Ive never seen anything like it. Give her some Valtrex, she might turn into a human being.


Trump took the COVID-19 test. I pray it's negative.



So do I. Not for his personal benefit, but mostly because he shakes hands with a lot of people, and I don’t want him to spread it.


Keep calm and carry on. And let's try not to feed the trolls and infallible attention whores (myself included) when we should be hunkering down in solidarity.


There is zero chance that Trump will publicly admit to being infected with COVID-19 regardless of what his tests show.


@59 I know! I'm trying to ignore him, but he's flailing about with his sword like a nunchucks fail video and I can't peel my eyes of the White Knight raising lumps on his own forehead.


Eyes? Might be gonorrhoea. I’d say you should get that checked, but the clinic’s busy with corona.


They say that Karma is a Bitch,
but that only true for the Wicked.

To The Righteous she is God's Avenging Angel;
forging the Arc of the Universe inevitably to Justice,
Righting all Wrongs.

The Harlot that spewed forth Lies and Hatred and Malice,
that glorified Perversion and Depravity.
Ensnared in a pool of her own vomitus,
Drowning in the puddle she heaved up,
Sliming down the gutter into the gaping Mouth of Hell,
arms outstretched for an alm.

Our President took steps to protect the Nation from the virus;
The Whore ignored and mocked and distorted;
when the number of cases in the US would have fit in a conference room and no one had died The Whore called for the head of Our President.
Little did she know she sat in an infestation,
waiting to engulf and swallow.

In a day your Lies and Hatred and Malice have gaped wide and engulfed you whole.



Seattle isn't afflicted by the virus,
but by it's cowardice, it's hypocrisy, it's vanity, it's shallow absence of heart.


It makes sense to keep around more senior/experienced staff members during lean times but beyond that they might have reservations about keeping a writer whose most vocal fans hate everything else the paper stands for.


@63: Its.


@64: But think about it for a sec. It's really fun getting unglued over Charles's posts and providing the needed corrective commentary!


A semi-literate evangelical loon has oozed onto Slog @63 ...sounds a lot like a willfully-ignorant, idiot Trumpanzee


@63 wrote, "The house of the wicked shall be overthrown: but the tabernacle of the upright shall flourish."

Jokes on you idiot. Sawant's newly enacted tenant protection measures will insure our wicked house remains intact indefinitely! All hail our wicked socialist overlords!!!



LOL. Seattle is dying! Heard that one before. Keep trying. You obviously don't know shit about Seattle or the tough, resourceful people that live here.

But wait, I thought all this was a nothing burger cooked up by the Democrats to take down the President? Isn't it just a flu? Now it's a biblical plague. Uh huh. I see.


Seattle, along with all the other enlightened cities (and a few unenlightened ones like Omaha), will be the ones who save the morons of the hinterlands from themselves. They just want to babble bible nonsense. The cities take care of business.

And I send the Stranger a little something something.


The Stranger's sister publication the Portland Mercury is feeling the squeeze too. Going online only for now and asking for donations. Ten staff people were laid off. Just scrolling down page one of the Slog only has 4 comments over 3 articles. I wonder if Portland can support an online only version of The Mercury?


I'm sorry to hear of the layoffs. When the "we need help" banner popped up the first time, I donated some money immediately. Not enough to keep things going of course, but if everyone (who can) puts in $50, it will help. I loved the horoscope every Wednesday! My company has gone to "work from home" status for the next month. Not looking forward to it. Keep calm and carry on.


Tell you what, grandma;
we ungrateful hicks in the Heartland will forgo our share of Seattle's magical healing power so you can focus on your own elderly who are dropping like flies in those slaughterhouses you call nursing homes.
Then, maybe you can heal your homeless.
Then, maybe address the pronounced underachievement your teeny tiny black youth population suffers; christ, you could assign each black kid their own personal Billionaire Mentor...
After you have addressed these sightly social anal warts marring Seattle's lovely face then you can do something for the hicks.


Bummer all around, take care, y’all!!

I do take (obviously minor) issue with calling the economic plight “unforeseen.” Anyone who paid attention to the Event 201 proceedings last fall would not be surprised one bit. Scared and insecure like everyone else, but not surprised. Our best and brightest saw this coming and the rest of us did nothing (not that we had much time). Dayum, that sounds eerily like climate change...


@73 - the revenge of Westboro is upon us!!!


Man, I want to give money but I don't want them to think I want Katie back. I can't tell if people actually sincerely like her, after years of reading her articles. Frankly, having grown up w this rag as the local liberal mouthpiece, it's p stunning how the comment community has become mostly starch neoliberal/centrists/quasi-enlightened moderates w too much time to kill at their day jobs (with a smattering of trolling from across the political spectrum). I'd certainly support a paper that engendered a more caring community, had a holistic progressive agenda instead of sort of a waffling apologetic west coast upper middle class vibe... But I don't think this is it. The smarmy, detached attitude of this corner of the web isn't really anything I'm proud of as a Seattlite. When there's plenty of other places to go, why stay beholden to the doomed ideology of the sad sorta-greedy gen Xer? We've got a future to pursue. If the Stranger dies, I hope some of the baggage it has carried dies with it.


Isn't Dan Savage rich? Why does he have to lay off people? And why Katie Herzog? Why not the clueless twenty somethings like Graham or Burns?



you know, you don’t get that stuff from toilet seats. Go to the health department. They’ll give you a shot of penicillin in the ass. Clears that right up. Hellfire when you pee? Thats the clap, you idiot.


@43: there's nothing to hate in the ideals of socialism. And since Stalinism and Maoism are total extinct, the socialists and leftists of today are free of any association with them or responsibility for them. Stalinism and Maoism are in the dead past-the true, democratic and liberating ideals of socialism live. Without socialism, there isn't any way to run the world on anything resembling humane values.


Socialism is compulsion and evil. Charity is voluntary and virtuous. Don't be evil.


Sorry, I don't donate to for-profit corporations, whether it's Boeing, Amazon, or Index Newspapers LLC.

If you're really concerned simply surrender 100% of your ownership to an independent board, reincorporate as a 501(c)3 and I'll happily make a donation. Plus you will then be eligible for foundation grants and will be relieved of substantial tax obligations. Filing a few pieces of paper will allow you to almost immediately hire 4 or 5 of those staff back. If ownership doesn't care enough, though, then why should I?


I'm cautiously open to donating but I'll first need to see how much profit this for-profit company is generating for ownership. Without knowing that I have no idea if my donation is going to rehire Stranger reporters or to minimize the impact on ownership's profit. So, if you're going to request donations like a non-profit then post your financial statements like a non-profit.


@85 I gave them $25 because that's what I'd pay for a night at the movies and The Stranger is a bad but campy movie, so why not?



You’re a herpe. I don’t mean to suggest that you have herpes, I mean to say that you are one individual herpe. You can see that in your pic. Bleeding, oozing sore taking up the entire mouth. Oozing pus. I mean, dripping pus. Just one massive, painful herpe.


Lester Black has been a valuable addition to The Stranger, and while I hate to see this happen to all of those impacted, I especially look forward to following his career as he certainly is a talent watch. Best of luck to all.


The Stranger isn't just a vital alternative to the mainstream dailies, it's crucial for incubating the talented people who have had a home there over the last 30 years. Holy shit, I remember when the Stranger folded in the middle - how would we have all gotten along without Savage Love since then?

Anyway, I gave $10. Big deal, not like I'll be spending it going out to eat. Wish it could be more but I'm tapped with all the donations to other places right now (and ain't nobody giving me my money back on events that are canceled).


Wanders, you're too Kind.

Switfy has hers
and the rest of us we
can just Fuck the fuck

She makes a GREAT Capitalist, no?
What is it they say?
If they ain't bleedin'
never leave 'em?

She's merely here to Stir Shit.
Our Disgust is her raisin de etre.


@87 She is a lioness, the Ne Plus Ultra of Capitalists. Meow.


@89 Math is free. Try studying some.


She's merely here to Stir Shit.
Our Disgust is her raisin de etre.


Nice to get a visit from Lester's mom @88.


@92 It's raison d'etre. Do try to keep up.


“Lester Black has been a valuable addition”

Lester, the guy who quoted Andre Taylor, brother of Che, and didn’t ask him whether his anti-police activism had anything to do with his own arrest and conviction in Nevada for trafficking under age girls into prostitution?

I mean Che just did 20 years for rape and was selling heroin with a illegal gun when he died Andre sold children for sex and still got a reach-around from Lester.


She's merely here to Stir Shit.
Our Disgust is her raisin* de etre.

*from the Grapes of Wrath
You can Look it Up.


@95 I wouldn’t be so sure. I’ve asked Lester for a reach-around on multiple occasions and he’s never agreed. Very much a professional. Like I said, top talent and one to watch.



If she took some Valtrex, she might look the way you describe her. As it stands, she merely looks like a veterinarian’s nightmare. Who knew the great cats could also be oral bottoms? It’s bad enough getting sucked off with teeth like that, but with that massive oozing herpe, it just seems too much for any poor lion to bear.

King of the Jungle, perhaps, but no stranger to the Drip.


children, please


The more you talk, the less you say. Holt shit, I am 34 years old. Time to join the rest of the adults in the real world.



**it's early and I'm not sleeping anyway.



Good Luck Katie,
this is sad news
you did good journalism
(and the only 'journalism' found in this cesspool of Leftist Propaganda...
Hopefully you will find and outlet that deserves you

The dickless millionaires who own and run this rag (Kuck and Doorknob Danny)
should dig into their own greasy pockets to pay for your salary
They love to pontificate about how others should treat employees but are in fact hypocritical greedy 1% scum when you peel the phony veneer off.

it is rich to see them begging for handouts,
after years of pushing an agenda of panic and hysteria and dependency and helplessness when their city implodes in a quivering spasm of self-induced economic coma it is nice to see them first in line of the screwed over...


@102: I suggest seeking a better attitude. Try being magnanimous for a change.


@100: I prefer brevity over verbosity.

BTW - I prefer that smokin' hot previous avatar you had with the low angle facial.


@107. You are quite thirsty for a guy named raindrop.


Yep, always seeking quenches. Especially with cabin fever.


@110 I’ve been “donating” to Amazon all weekend. Books, board games, movie rentals, food, soap. Already had the shotgun and lots of buckshot, so no need to visit Wade’s in Bellevue.


I admit the professor and @110 have a point. Might as well make a "donation" to your favorite restaurant or any other private enterprise.

I won't donate any more to The Stranger. In a crisis like this, excess dollars we have should go to food banks and charity.


@112 I sent them the cost of a Pagliacci pizza. Ummmm...Pagliacci.


@113: That's about what I did, plus a cob salad.


Hi. Peter Fabricant, CFO of Sears here. Our brand is an endemic part of Americana. But now, because of COVID 19 (and no other reason), we have had to skip paying a dividend to Fletcher Bay Capital, our biggest investor. Because of that, they may require us to fire 18 employees to generate the money for their dividend payout. Please give us the money so we can pay Fletcher Bay's chairman what we owe him and he can get his yacht refurbished without making us fire anyone. Give whatever you can. Even just $500 would help. Thank you.


Hello fellow Seattleitrs. I'm Ron Jaffrey. Thirty years ago I had to lay off all employees from my store, JAFCO. I am willing to reopen it but I need people to work there and, after running the numbers, I've determined I can't make a profit if I have to pay salaries. Therefore I'm asking everyone to donate money so I can hire employees. PLEASE.


I guess the one silver lining is, it only took me around 15 minutes to drive from the Eastside to Volunteer Park today. Traffic’s been great.