What is the Water Tower? A Guide for the Perplexed

Published September 10, 2007

• The WT is not the New York Times. It is not The Cynic. It is not the Daily Show. It is not The New Yorker. It is not Fox News. It is not a blog. So, then WTF is it then?

• The WT is a little newspaper that wants to entertain and inform in a modern way. It will tackle serious issues in a serious tone; it will tackle serious issues in a clever tone; it will tackle silly issues in a serious tone; it will tackle silly issues in a silly tone. That is the spectrum.

• The trick of creating the WT is to find a balance between humor and honesty, news and naughtiness. As editors, we combine news and sarcasm. As readers, you must tease out the news and the sarcasm. When a reader says the WT is only funny, we have 50% failed. When a reader says it is too preachy, we have 50% failed as well. We are both those things.

• We understand the difficulty in striking this balance. The paper aims to be taken seriously and taken as seriously funny. This is a lofty aim and we will fail sometimes.

• Readers, those who have patience and see some merit in what we are attempting to do here, must bear with us.

• The paper is serious. The paper is funny. This is the contradiction of the paper and the contradiction of life. As we all must find a way to deal with in the latter, we ask that you deal with it in the former as well.

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