Dan Savage
This just in…
After nearly 30 years of hanging by a thread and clinging to its smutty sex ads (1st amendment and all that, you know), KC’s alternative newsweekly of record, The Pitch has done the unthinkable.
It’s pulled the plug on most of its raunchy sex ads.
That as the last of the old guard David Hudnall bailed for the New Times in Phoenix.
Speaking of which, the New Times was practically the godfather of alt-news rauch.
For decades KC’s money-losing tabloid clung to the big bucks the needlessly raunchy sex ads brought in. While ignoring that many of its primo distribution points would not allow the mag on the premises because of those ads.
Worse yet, any number of high-end advertisers – retailers like Tivol – wouldn’t touch the Pitch, lest they be lumped in with the seedy advertising that at one point constituted a pretty fair chunk of the zine’s back pages.
Speaking of which…
For years the back cover of the Pitch was home the the nefarious “Backpage” classified ad section former owner New Times Media launched in 2004 in its 11 alt weeklies. And which evolved over time to include a variety of “adult” ads with sub categories of sex work, ranging from erotic massage to escort services.
The Pitch did away with it after its owner got in trouble in and the federal government seized the site in 2018, busted its CEO, who then agreed to shut it down.
To complement its display sex ads, all the Pitch needed was some sort of halfway legit journalistic garnish.
Enter syndicated sex writer Dan Savage and his cleverly named Savage Love.
Aside from churning out outlandish sex advice, Savage – a pornography proponent – is, uh, famous for coining the term “pegging,” to describe a woman anally penetrating a man via a strap-on.
Anyway, now that the Pitch is down to a single strip club ad, Savage’s controversial column is the only upscale advertising cock blocker that remains.
Over-the-toop column language and advice aside, Savage controversies range from a 2006 interview in which he said a Green Party condidate “should be dragged behind a pickup truck until there’s nothing left but the rope” and “:I wish the Republicans were all fucking dead” to allegations that he is transphobic.
In the current Pitch, Savage’s lead column advice addresses a “question” from a dude who begins by describing himself as 20, straight and fit, then proceeds to says, “I masturbated prone – flat on my stomach – for years. I’ve now changed to a more traditional position – on my back or sitting upright, and I’m using my hand rather than grinding against a mattress.”
Sound like the kinda stuff that would make Tivol wanna advertise?
