This Seattle magazine is printing again: Today So Far

• The Stranger is back in print ... sort of.
• Ciscoe Morris has some tips to kick off spring gardening.

This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for March 21, 2023.

The Stranger is back in print ... sort of.

The Stranger ceased printing physical editions in March 2020, as pandemic shutdowns were kicking in. It's been published entirely online ever since. Until now. For the first time in nearly three years, The Stranger is printing a physical publication via its Art and Performance Spring 2023 magazine.

Stranger arts editor Megan Seling tells Seattle Now that this edition is going to stir something within readers, something they forgot about.

"Once people pick up a copy and remember what print media feels like, especially an alt-weekly or an arts, creative publication," Seling said. "People are going to want to go to a coffee shop, get a cup of coffee, whatever, and flip through The Stranger. I used to love doing that ... I think people are going to realize they missed that."

It took a staff-wide effort to get the print edition out for the spring quarter. But don't expect regular editions of the alt-weekly to start showing up at your local coffee shops and bars. Seling tells Seattle Now that, "We're taking it publication-by-publication." In this case, a quarterly arts magazine. The regular weekly won't be back as in the Before Times. The magazine was an experiment to see if there was a desire in the city for a printed publication to come back.

"This one did well enough to where we are planning to do one in the summer as well, so look for that, and also one in the fall. We are not going to be back in weekly print, or even bi-weekly print at this point, financially that's just not feasible. We don't have the staff to maintain that kind of workload either. But if people read it, if they like it, if word gets out that people want it to stay, that will be very helpful to us in knowing whether or not it's worth it to keep going."

A lot of people wonder if magazines, like the one The Stranger is publishing now, can hold up in our modern media era. That's a lot of what Seling was speaking to while chatting with Seattle Now. Full disclosure: I published my own indie magazine project over the past year, so I have a bit of a personal angle into all this. I too have had to answer similar questions around the relevance of print media. Here's my answer.

Media is changing, but it's not really all that different. The same demand is still there. It's a matter of whether legacy media is providing content the way audiences have evolved. The demand for radio shows is still there, we just call it "podcasts." The demand for newspapers is still there, audiences just moved online. Just as the above-mentioned forms of media have learned, modern audiences are more engaged when you target a specific niche. Podcasts are not like radio shows that cast a wide advertising net to pull in as many people as possible. They likely focus on a core interest group (politics, drones, 1970s Ford vehicles, comic book collectors). Niches may be smaller, but audiences are often more engaged. Magazines can be similar in this regard. People still like magazines (folks are also still buying physical books after all), but it's not like the '90s when you could print massive numbers for wide, generic audiences.

In the case of The Stranger's recent Arts and Performance edition, my Dyer prediction is that it will be successful. It's a niche publication for a targeted audience. That's my reasoning. You may think differently. Feel free to email me at dyer@kuow.org. And check out Seling's full conversation on Seattle Now here.

Now is the time to start gardening, according to local gardening expert Ciscoe Morris.

"Well, this is a great time to start growing your veggie garden now! And you could sow your seeds for lettuce right now, your peas, salad greens, mustards and spinach — they're all ready to go in!" Morris told KUOW's Soundside.

For years, I dabbled with apartment gardening — trying to grow herbs, even tomatoes in limited window space or small balconies, even the back of my boat. For the first time, I now have room for a raised bed. My wife Nina and I are now trying to get one set up. I have never realized how expensive soil can be. I'll never use the term "dirt cheap" again. We really don't have a clue about what to plant, when to plant, and so forth. So hearing this inspiration from Morris is great timing. Such as this insight for those who like growing salad greens. Ciscoe is planting sugar snap peas right now as a salad-growing tactic.

"I'm growing them in a fairly big-sized pot, a nice wide pot, about 12 inches deep. I'm going to put those (peas) in the middle, then I'm going to put a bunch of lettuce, mustards, arugula, and salad greens along the outside. All you got to do is fertilize one time with a good organic flower food, like tomato food. The peas, they collect nitrogen out of the soil and give it back to your lettuce and salad greens so you don't have to fertilize for the rest of the time those are growing in there. That's a really fun way to just go out and get your salad. Just walk out and grab that stuff. I just pick lettuce from the outside of the bunch and it keep them growing for a long time."

I'm using it as a kick in the butt to get moving, or I guess digging. Morris' tips don't end with timing for spring gardening. He also spoke with Soundside about roses in your yard, and even some ideas around Chilean Fire Trees. Each can offer some benefits for pollinators like hummingbirds and bees. Check out the full conversation here.

AS SEEN ON KUOW

Chris Herron, 66, of north Franklin County, digs his finger down to frozen moisture in his wheat field. It’s drier than he’d like for this time of year. (Northwest News Network)

DID YOU KNOW?

Ramadan starts this week, marking a holy month for Islam, observed from one crescent moon to the next. For those unfamiliar with the Ramadan tradition, it's similar to the Catholic time of Lent. For those who are unfamiliar with Lent, it's sort of like the Jewish High Holy Days / Yom Kippur. Of course, these observances are unique unto themselves and each have their own traditions and backing stories. They generally call for fasting, prayer, and contemplation. Giving up alcohol, certain foods, smoking, etc. is generally practiced, depending on the denomination. As for Ramadan, it commemorates Muhammad's first revelation, when the angel Gabriel first appeared to him and imparted some knowledge.

Ramadan requires a specific form of fasting. Muslims don't eat from sunrise to sundown. Therefore, there is a meal before the sun rises, and a meal after the sun goes down. This time of fasting is not just about food, Ramadan also calls for avoiding immoral behavior, such as lying or bad deeds.

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