Dear Ann Landers: Advise Your Successors

Garry Trudeau pushed a fund for public schools

(NEWSER) - The Chicago Tribune refused to run Friday's Doonesbury strip because it made, in the paper's words, "a direct fundraising appeal for a specific charity." The newspaper's "editorial practices do not allow individuals to promote their self-interests," it said in a notice. The strip promoted DonorsChoose.org , calling it "a cool site that connects you to public school classrooms in need." The comic contained a smartphone-scannable code to send users to the website, the Washington Post reports. More»

Profile: He's gone beyond how-to columns into modern morality

(NEWSER) - Dan Savage has been writing his Savage Love sex column for 20 years now, much to the horror of chaste readers who stumble upon it at its original home at Seattle weekly the Stranger or one of its many syndicated sites. Given his ever-widening media reach—an MTV show is reportedly in the offing, for instance—Savage is arguably "America's most influential advice columnist," writes Benjamin J. Dueholm in a profile at Washington Monthly. What's more, as it odd may sound to his Puritan critics, Savage also is emerging as one of the nation's most prominent ethicists. (Author Dueholm, it's worth noting, is a Lutheran minister.) More»

(USER SUBMITTED) - Here's one way to solve the dearth of advertising for newspapers—just get rid of that pesky stuff altogether and charge readers an extra $5 an issue. This is what the Chicago Tribune may be planning, according to a story in the Chicago Reader, which got its hands on an ad-free dummy copy of the new paper. More»

Magazine: Regrettable production mistake

(NEWSER) - File this under Shocking Advice: A columnist for Brit lad mag Zoo has urged a lovelorn reader to slice his former girlfriend's face. Go on a "rampage with the boys, get on the booze and smash anything that moves," actor Danny Dyer responds to reader "Alex," who asks how he can mend a broken heart. Or, Dyer adds: "Cut your ex's face, and then no one will want her." A magazine spokesman ells the Guardian the column was an "extremely regrettable production error." The author says he was misquoted. More»

Good ideas and sober assessments made during bid should go forward

(NEWSER) - Chicago failed in its bid to land the Olympics, but look on the bright side, the Tribune urges: If the city builds on the bright ideas and redevelopment plans designed to sway the IOC, it can have all the benefits with none of the hassle. “Bidding for an Olympiad forced Chicago, its leaders and its citizens, to focus on what works and what doesn't,” the editors write. “It made all of us think to the future.” More»