The Stranger was founded in July 1991 by Tim Keck, who had previously co-founded the satirical newspaper The Onion, and cartoonist James Sturm. Its first issue was produced out of a home in Wallingford and was released on September 23, 1991. The newspaper moved its offices to a building on Capitol Hill in 1993, where they would remain until 2020. It calls itself "Seattle's Only Newspaper," an expression of its disdain for Seattle's two dailies and The Strangers main rival, the Seattle Weekly. The paper regularly covers Seattle City Council politics. In its early days, The Stranger had a print run of 20,000, and was focused in Seattle's University District. The paper was a single sheet wrapped around a wad of coupons for local businesses. On April 16, 2012, The Stranger won its first Pulitzer Prize. Eli Sanders won in the Feature Writing category for "The Bravest Woman In Seattle," which the citation describes as "a haunting story of a woman who survived a brutal attack that took the life of her partner, using the woman’s brave courtroom testimony and the details of the crime to construct a moving narrative." The feature appeared in the June 15, 2011 edition. The Stranger made the transition to a biweekly magazine-style format with their September 27, 2017 issue. The paper is distributed to local businesses, newsstands, and newspaper boxes free of charge every other Wednesday. The offices of The Stranger are planned to be moved from Capitol Hill to Chinatown–International District in July 2020. After publishing Volume 29, Number 15The Stranger ceased publishing a print edition and subsequently removed their newspaper boxes from the streets of Seattle.
Notable contributors
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Stranger announced on 13 March 2020 that, due to a dramatic decrease in income from loss of advertising revenue, they would be suspending their print edition; laying off 18 employees, including the majority of staff writers; and creating an online fundraiser to keep The Stranger afloat.
Editors
was the Stranger's editor-in-chief from 4 April 2001 to September 2007. Savage, an associate editor since the paper's founding, made his name writing the paper's sarcastic and sometimes inflammatory sex advice column, titled "Savage Love", which has since appeared in every issue of The Stranger. In September 2007, Savage became the paper's editorial director and was replaced as editor-in-chief by then-27-year-old Christopher Frizzelle, formerly the Books Editor and Arts Editor. In July 2016, Frizzelle was replaced by Tricia Romano, a former staff reporter at the Seattle Times and eight-year-long columnist at The Village Voice in New York. Romano left the paper in June 2017. The paper does not currently have an editor-in-chief, as Frizzelle now acts as the print editor. Chase Burns is the digital editor. The newspaper's current managing editor is Leilani Polk, who replaced Kathleen Richards. The previous managing editor was Bethany Jean Clement, who was formerly the managing editor of Seattle Weekly. Clement's essays in the restaurant section of the newspaper have been anthologized in Best Food Writing 2008 and 2009. The Stranger's "Police Beat", a weekly column authored by Associate Editor Charles Mudede, has been adapted to an indie film of the same title. Mudede also co-wrote the controversial documentary film, Zoo, about the life and death of Kenneth Pinyan who died in a bestiality incident in Enumclaw, Washington in July 2005. The Arts and Music editor is the lead singer of Seattle band Harvey Danger, Sean Nelson—formerly a staff writer and TheStranger's Film Editor—who has profiled the Portland, Oregon band the Decemberists and the pre-teen Seattle band Smoosh when they landed a record deal. The paper does not currently have a news editor. Previously, the position was held by Steven Hsieh, Eli Sanders, and Dominic Holden. Prior to the latter was Erica C. Barnett, who, in 2007, was named reporter of the year by Seattle's venerable Municipal League. Barnett left the paper in 2009 to work for news website Publicola.net, founded by former Stranger news editor Josh Feit.
Writers
As of 2020, staff writers include Lester Black, Nathalie Graham, Katie Herzog, Jasmyne Kiemig, and Dave Segal. Previous staffers have included:
actor/monologist David Schmader, who wrote a "news of the week" column called "Last Days";
Emily White, former editor-in-chief, who has authored such books as Fast Girls: Teenage Tribes and the Myth of the Slut,, and You Will Make Money in Your Sleep: The Story of Dana Giacchetto, Financial Adviser to the Stars ;
Eric Fredericksen, who went on to run the art space Western Bridge;
Christine Wenc, who edited the paper from 1992–1993, during which time the paper was included on Rolling Stone’s Top 10 list for new alternative journalism;
The Strangerombudsman, A. Birch Steen, wrote acerbic criticism of the paper within every issue, usually assailing the contents for their extreme liberal bias. He was billed as a former member of the OSHABoard of Governors, but was likely a fictional character. The name is an anagram of Steinbacher, after Bradley Steinbacher, the paper's Managing Editor from 2003 until 2008. Steen's harsh critiques originally appeared on the inside of the back page, and later above the table of contents. He would also be the apparent author of the paper's Twitter feed. Steen died on Monday, April 16, 2012, after suffering a stroke.
Cartoonists
The Stranger has published original comics, illustrations, and graphic art by such notable cartoonists as Tony Millionaire, Peter Bagge, Ellen Forney, Megan Kelso, Al Columbia, Chris Ware, R. Crumb, Jim Woodring, and K. Thor Jensen. In addition, it was the only major Seattle paper to run any of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons: four of them were used to illustrate an article by Bruce Bawer about the controversy.
On the Halloween prior to the 2008 elections the Stranger published a parody in its Topography of Terror series, which included the addresses of homes displaying Republican yard signs. The controversy was then mentioned in a Saturday Night Live sketch about internet conspiracy theories about Democratic intimidation of elderly Republican voters. The Stranger later blacked out the addresses on the online version of its story, after charges of voter intimidation.
