I have woken up in the very unenviable position of having to write Slog AM, our daily news roundup, the morning after news broke that our editor, Hannah Murphy Winter, is leaving The Stranger.
Instead of letting other outlets talk around it, and skipping the headline entirely, let me just say, straight from the source: It is true, management will be replacing Hannah, and I am furious.
The growth The Stranger has shown, especially in the past year, is due in no small part to the trust and vision Hannah has built and helped implement both in the office and the city. They have stood firmly between church and state, not allowing management to have any sway in editorial decisions (including, and especially, the endorsements). They have worked individually with writers to ensure they can do work they’re proud of, not just work that analytics responds to, lack of resources be damned. They have cheered on the Noisy Creek Union as our colleagues ratified their first contract, they have laughed at cops, written award-winning political profiles, and defended artists getting screwed by bad management. With Hannah at the helm, The Stranger—this wonderful and daring bunch of weirdos I get to share brains with every day—has, once again, become a trusted, influential media outlet.
I don’t need to tell you how important this kind of work is, especially in this day and age. And I don’t say these words lightly. I worked at The Stranger from 2000-2013 (yes, “bAcK wHeN iT wAs GoOd”), and I returned in 2022. I have been through many iterations of this paper; I fucking love this paper.
I also have the utmost respect for my colleagues. I know that every single one of us will continue to do important work. We’re journalists, to our core. But this decision hits harder than the all-too-common disconnect between staff and ownership. It is a slap in the face to me, and those of us who work countless hours to do the very tireless, thankless work ownership claims is so important in our monthly all-staff meetings. I can’t help but wonder what—and, more importantly, who—we are doing it all for.
