The ''San Diego Reader'' is an

alternative press Alternative press may refer to: Individual publications * ''Alternative Press'' (magazine), an American music magazine Alternative journalism * Alternative media ** Alternative media (U.S. political left) ** Alternative media (U.S. political r ...

newspaper in

San Diego County, California San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county (United States), county in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of California, north to its Mexico-United States border, border with Mexico. As of the 2020 United States Cen ...

. Published weekly since October 1972, the ''Reader'' is distributed free on Wednesday and Thursday via street boxes and cooperating retail outlets.

History

Founder Jim Holman, a navy veteran, worked for the ''

Chicago Reader The ''Chicago Reader'', or ''Reader'' (stylized as ЯEADER), is an American alternative newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. The ''Reader'' has been ...

'' before starting up in San Diego. The initial press run of the ''San Diego Reader'' was 20,000 copies that cost $400 to print. In 1989, it was printing 131,000 copies a week and in 2015, the circulation was 90,000. In 1988, the ''Reader'' moved into a former restaurant in

Little Italy Little Italy is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Italians or people of Italian ancestry, usually in an Urban area, urban neighborhood. The concept of "Little Italy" holds many different aspects of the Italian cul ...

and moved to offices in Golden Hill in 2012. In a 1989 story about the paper, the ''Los Angeles Times'' wrote that it had developed a reputation as being "liberal", and contrasted that to Holman's morality-driven rules for the paper, such as refusing to publish advertisements promoting abortion services and prohibiting personal advertisements seeking homosexual relationships (later modified to prohibit all personal ads). He also runs the anti-abortion California Catholic Daily website from the same offices. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, 30 employees agreed to take pay cuts equivalent to half of their pay. In February 2024, Jim Holman announced that the Reader has a new owner/editor Matt Lickona, who bought the paper for one dollar, and that print publication would be shutting down. The online version of the paper will continue.

References

External links

{{Portal, California
San Diego Reader History
Weekly newspapers published in California Newspapers published in San Diego Alternative weekly newspapers published in the United States Companies based in San Diego Newspapers established in 1972 1972 establishments in California