 | |
| Type | Alternative weekly |
|---|---|
| Format | Tabloid |
| Owner(s) | Matt Lickona |
| Founder(s) | Jim Holman |
| Editor | Matt Lickona |
| Founded | October, 1972 |
| Headquarters | San Diego, California,U.S. |
| Circulation | 90,000 weekly (as of 2015)[1] |
| OCLC number | 475745849 |
| Website | SanDiegoReader.com |
TheSan Diego Reader is analternative press newspaper inSan Diego County, California. Published weekly since October 1972, theReader is distributed free on Wednesday and Thursday via street boxes and cooperating retail outlets.[1]
Founder Jim Holman, a navy veteran, worked for theChicago Reader before starting up in San Diego. The initial press run of theSan Diego Reader was 20,000 copies that cost $400 to print.[2] In 1989, it was printing 131,000 copies a week and in 2015, the circulation was 90,000.[1][3] In 1988, theReader moved into a former restaurant inLittle Italy and moved to offices inGolden Hill in 2012.[4][5]
In a 1989 story about the paper, theLos 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 prohibitingpersonal advertisements seeking homosexual relationships (later modified to prohibit all personal ads).[3] He also runs the anti-abortion California Catholic Daily website from the same offices.[6][7][8]
Due to theimpact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, 30 employees agreed to take pay cuts equivalent to half of their pay.[9]
In February 2024, Jim Holman announced that the Reader has a new owner/editor Matt Lickona, who bought the paper for one dollar,[10] and that print publication would be shutting down. The online version of the paper will continue.[11]
