Eugene Weekly has come to Salem. I'm cool with that.

Whoa... where am I?... could it be... that Salem has become Eugene?... 

The new paper box on the corner of Liberty and Court in downtown Salem disoriented me. Eugene Weekly, an alternative publication, was beckoning me to grasp a free copy. What gives? 

I wondered if there had been an Alternative Paper Coup.

Maybe those hippie radicals in Eugene had taken over our very own Salem Weekly, deposing publisher A.P. Walther and imprisoning him in the Eugene Weekly print room, where, I assume, bicycles pedaled by indentured vegans provide the power to make the presses roll.

But then I glanced to the left and saw that all was well. Salem Weekly still lived! (Albeit in a less vivid paper box.) I realized that instead of diminishing our town's alternative paper offerings, Eugene Weekly had expanded them.

So... welcome to Salem, Eugene Weekly! Live long and prosper. 

Curious about what brought Eugene Weekly here, I emailed its editor, Ted Taylor.

Yesterday I noticed a Eugene Weekly box in downtown Salem. It was empty but still, welcome! Maybe your Eugenian presence will inoculate Salem with an added dose of coolness.

Kind of like when the cool kids at high school come over to your table in the cafeteria. If you’re nerdy, it feels good to be noticed by them. Eugene Weekly has noticed Salem! Maybe we’re a little bit cool!

What brings you to Salem? Do you have plans to make Salem into Very North Eugene? (I can only hope…)

Taylor promptly responded.

 

He explained that they'd started by dropping 50 copies off at the capitol in response to a request by a state legislator. Eugene Weekly, he said, has a regular column, "Hot Air Society," by former Sen. Tony Corcoran that takes a witty look at state politics.

 

Now they're distributing 400 copies in Salem, mostly at cafes and high-traffic areas around the capitol area.  Taylor shared the Eugene Weekly mission statement.

 

Eugene Weekly exists to boldly question prevailing wisdom and authority. We expose corporate practices and public policies that benefit the few at the expense of the many. We provide a voice for the oppressed and dismissed, and support unfettered artistic expression.

 

As informed citizens, we carry a responsibility for community leadership. We advocate aggressively for environmental sanity, government accountability, sustainable economics, social justice, cultural diversity, tolerance, and the lively, free interchange of ideas and opinions.

 

We also seek to provide employment, training and a supportive work environment for the Eugene area’s most creative writers, artists, photographers, graphic designers, salespeople, office workers and managers.

 

Sounds great to me.

 

I picked up a copy of Eugene Weekly today and am looking forward to reading it. Thumbing through a few pages, I could immediately see how different Eugene is from Salem (as if I didn't already know that).

 

Likely I'll wait quite a while before I see a headline in Salem Weekly like the one on Eugene Weekly's page 10: "Queer Pub & Nightclub to Open Downtown."

Stopping at LifeSource Natural Foods on my way home, I saw that Eugene Weekly also has a presence there. Again, right next to the usual resting place of Salem Weekly.

I think the two alternative papers are going to be best friends. I certainly feel close to each of them. Salem and Eugene both need options to the daily newspapers that aren't doing a good job of informing their communities.

Comments

[Geronimo Tagatac]

Any alternative to the Statesman Journal, with its Chamber of Commerce slant, is welcome. Maybe they'll send a reporter here to cover some of the Salem city council's strange behavior.

[Harry Vanderpool]

Geronimo, you must be talking about a different city council than the one I know.
If Salem's city council was "strange", Brian would be slobbering all over them.
A more suitable term is "predictable".
Salem folks like predictable.