Michael Schaffer is an American journalist who is currently editor of Washington City Paper

Washington City Paper

The Washington City Paper is a U.S. alternative weekly newspaper serving the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.Founded in 1981, and published for its first year under the masthead 1981, taking the City Paper name in volume 2, by Russ Smith, it shared ownership with the Chicago Reader from 1982...

.

Biography

Schaffer began his career as a writer at City Paper, where he eventually became editor David Carr (journalist)

David Carr (journalist)

David Carr is an American journalist and author. He is a media and culture columnist for The New York Times. In his 2008 memoir, The Night of the Gun, he detailed his past experiences with cocaine addiction and includes interviews with people from his past, tackling his memoir as if he were...

's deputy. He later worked at U.S. News and World Report, where he covered national politics as well as the 9/11 aftermath in Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

 and Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

. And he later served on the Philadelphia Inquirer, mainly focusing on municipal politics and doing a tour of duty in Iraq. In 2007, he left the Inquirer to work on a book, One Nation Under Dog, published by Henry Holt in 2009. The next year, he returned to City Paper, replacing longtime friend Erik Wemple

Erik Wemple

Erik Wemple is the editor of the alternative weekly Washington City Paper. He was raised in Schenectady, New York and attended Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, graduating in 1986. In 1986-87 Wemple taught and coached sports at Trinity Pawling School, in Pawling, New York. In the fall of...

 as editor. He's also written for Slate, the Washington Post, Philadelphia

Philadelphia (magazine)

Philadelphia is a regional monthly magazine published in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by Metrocorp....

, the Daily Beast, the Boston Globe, and others.