''PDXS'' was a biweekly tabloid newspaper in

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

in the U.S. state of

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

from 1991 to 1998. It was founded by Jim Redden, previously a reporter with ''

Willamette Week ''Willamette Week'' (''WW'') is an alternative weekly newspaper and a website published in Portland, Oregon, United States, since 1974. It features reports on local news, politics, sports, business, and culture. History Early history '' ...

'' and subsequently with the ''

Portland Tribune The ''Portland Tribune'' is a weekly newspaper published every Wednesday in Portland, Oregon, United States. It is part of the Pamplin Media Group, which publishes a number of community newspapers in the Portland metropolitan area. Launched i ...

'', and his brother Bill Redden, who went on to become a

public defender A public defender is a lawyer appointed to represent people who otherwise cannot reasonably afford to hire a lawyer to defend themselves in a trial. Several countries provide people with public defenders, including the UK, Belgium, Hungary and Si ...

. ''PDXS'' focused on arts and culture, as well as news coverage (typically exposé journalism and

conspiracy theory A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * ...

.) ''PDXS'' was one of several "local culture" periodicals that launched in the early 1990s, alongside ''Face Value'', ''Art Rag'', ''Paperback Jukebox'', ''Snipehunt'', ''Metropolis'', and ''

Plazm ''Plazm'' magazine has been published since 1991 by a collective of designers, writers, and others in Portland, Oregon, United States. The complete catalog of ''Plazm'' magazine is included in the permanent collections of the San Francisco Museu ...

'', alongside ''Reflex'', which was published in nearby Seattle and covered the Portland art scene.

History

In 1991, brothers Jim and Bill Redden left the ''

'' to launched a new publication focused on music called ''PDXS.'' Competitors ''Tonic'', ''Paperback Jukebox'', and ''Blotter'' all folded within a few months in 1995; that year, Jim Redden and fellow former ''Willamette Week'' writer D. K. Holm published a "Hack Attack" column criticizing ''Willamette Week'' for abandoning its alternative roots. Holm used the pseudonym "Sid Falco." In 1996, ''PDXS'' sponsored "Anti NXNW," a music festival challenging the "North by Northwest" festival, sponsored by

South by Southwest South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

and by ''Willamette Week'', which ran from 1995 to 2001. By 1999, Jim Redden was running the paper on his own and decided to close so he could focus on book writing. In 2000, he published the book ''Snitch Culture'', which explores how the state and private institutions compromise individual privacy through social and technical means. The book includes a number of Portland incidents.

Notable coverage

Larry Hurwitz Investigation

Redden published a serial article, "The Larry Hurwitz Story," in 23 issues, which documented accumulating evidence relating to the death of Tim Moreau, who had worked for the Starry Night nightclub. Largely as a result of Redden's investigative work, Hurwitz, who had owned the club at the time, was arrested in 1998 on tax evasion charges, and, after his former employee George Castagnola began cooperating with police in 1998, pleaded no contest to murder, receiving a 12-year sentence.

Boxing column

Novelist Katherine Dunn contributed a regular

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

column, which typically featured news about local matches. Following boxer

Mike Tyson Michael Gerard Tyson (born June 30, 1966) is an American former professional boxer who competed between 1985 and 2024. Nicknamed "Iron Mike" and "Kid Dynamite" in his early career, and later known as "the Baddest Man on the Planet", Tyson i ...

's controversial match with

Evander Holyfield Evander Holyfield (born October 19, 1962) is an American former professional boxer who competed between 1984 and 2011. He reigned as the undisputed championship (boxing), undisputed champion in the cruiserweight (boxing), cruiserweight division ...

, Dunn wrote an article that bucked conventional opinion, contending that Holyfield provoked Tyson with illegal head butts.

Alumni

''PDXS'' was one of the first outlets to publish the writing of Rene Denfeld, who went on to become an acclaimed author.

References

Defunct newspapers published in Oregon Newspapers published in Portland, Oregon 1990s establishments in Oregon 2000s disestablishments in Oregon {{Oregon-newspaper-stub