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 recognized as a pioneer among alternative weeklies for both its creative nonfiction and its commercial scheme. Richard Karpel, then–executive director of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, wrote: [T]he most significant historical event in the creation of the modern alt-weekly occurred in Chicago in 1971, when the Chicago Reader pioneered the practice of free circulation, a cornerstone of today's alternative papers. The Reader also developed a new kind of journalism, ignoring the news and focusing on everyday life and ordinary people. The Reader was founded by a group of friends from Carleton College, and four of them remained its primary owners for 36 years. While annual revenue reached an all-time high of $22.6 million in 2002, double what it had been a decade earlier, profits and readership then went into steep decline, and ownership changed several times between 2007 and 2018. In 2022, the owners transferred the Reader to a new non-profit organization, the Reader Institute for Community Journalism.…

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 recognized as a pioneer among alternative weeklies for both its creative nonfiction and its commercial scheme. Richard Karpel, then–executive director of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, wrote: [T]he most significant historical event in the creation of the modern alt-weekly occurred in Chicago in 1971, when the Chicago Reader pioneered the practice of free circulation, a cornerstone of today's alternative papers. The Reader also developed a new kind of journalism, ignoring the news and focusing on everyday life and ordinary people. The Reader was founded by a group of friends from Carleton College, and four of them remained its primary owners for 36 years. While annual revenue reached an all-time high of $22.6 million in 2002, double what it had been a decade earlier, profits and readership then went into steep decline, and ownership changed several times between 2007 and 2018. In 2022, the owners transferred the Reader to a new non-profit organization, the Reader Institute for Community Journalism. On June 22, 2020, the Reader, citing a 90% drop in advertising revenue due to COVID-19 shutdowns, announced that it was pivoting from a weekly to a biweekly print schedule, with a renewed focus on digital content and storytelling and a refreshed special issues calendar. The Reader returned to weekly publishing in June 2024. The Reader is dated every Thursday and distributed free on Wednesday and Thursday via street boxes and cooperating retail outlets. the paper claimed to have nearly 1,200 locations in the Chicago metropolitan area and circulation of 60,000, a fraction of what circulation had been in the mid-2000s. The Reader remains among the largest and most successful alternative newspapers in the country. Weekly readership had once been put at 450,000. ==Publication history== ==Related ventures== "The Straight Dope", by the pseudonymous Cecil Adams, was the Chicago Reader ' s first weekly column and one of the first features to be widely syndicated in the alternative press, at one time appearing in 35 papers. It was started on 2 February 1973 by Michael Lenehan and later written by Dave Kehr. In 1978¹ it was taken over by Ed Zotti, who continued to serve as Cecil's "assistant" as of January 2010. In 1984¹, Chicago Review Press published The Straight Dope, a compilation of columns; the cover named Cecil Adams as author and Zotti as editor. The title was picked up and republished by Ballantine, which published four more volumes between 1988¹ and 1999. In 1996¹, The Straight Dope became a user area on AOL; a short-lived TV series, produced by Andrew Rosen, on the A&E Network; and a Web site, Straightdope.com, which was named one of PC Magazine ' s Top 101 Web Sites and as of January 2010 was drawing nearly 1.2 million users per month. The Los Angeles Reader began publishing in 1978 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Chicago Reader, Inc. It was the first newspaper to publish Matt Groening's comic strip Life in Hell and David Lynch's strip The Angriest Dog in the World. Groening worked at the Los Angeles Reader for six years, first in circulation and then as a critic and assistant editor. In 1989, the paper was sold to a company headed by its founding editor, James Vowell. In 1996, it was sold to and closed by New Times Media, which later became Village Voice Media. Various other Readers have been published, but the San Diego and Los Angeles papers are the only ones affiliated with the Chicago Reader. In the late 1970s, Chicago Reader, Inc. (CRI) sued the Twin Cities Reader for trademark infringement, arguing that the Chicago Reader had given special meaning to the name "Reader". The federal appeals court ultimately ruled that the term was "merely descriptive" and thus could not be protected as a trademark. The East Bay Express, which serves the San Francisco Bay area, was co-founded in 1978 by Nancy Banks, a co-founder of the Chicago Reader, and editor John Raeside. Chicago Reader owners invested in the paper and eventually CRI held a major stake. The paper was sold in 2001 to New Times Media, which became Village Voice Media and in 2007 sold it to editor Stephen Buel and a group of investors. Washington City Paper was founded in 1981¹ by Russ Smith and Alan Hirsch, who had founded Baltimore City Paper in 1977. Originally named 1981, the name was changed the following year. The Reader's Guide to Arts & Entertainment was published as a suburban extension of the Chicago Reader in 1996. Before then, the Reader had avoided distribution in all but the closest suburbs of Chicago. The Reader's Guide was a scaled-down version of the Reader, printed as a one-section tabloid meant to satisfy suburban demand for Reader content and advertising. In 2007, it was closed and distribution of the complete Chicago Reader was expanded to the suburbs. The Ruxton Group, originally called the Reader Group, was formed by CRI in 1984 as a national advertising representative for the Reader, Washington City Paper, and other large-market alternative weeklies. In 1995 the company was sold to New Times Media, which became Village Voice Media and renamed Ruxton as the Voice Media Group. Index Newspapers is the company that publishes The Stranger in Seattle, Washington, and the Portland Mercury in Portland, Oregon. In 2002, CRI invested in Index and took a minority interest. Quarterfold, Inc. is a company formed by most of the former owners of Chicago Reader, Inc. to succeed that company and hold assets that were not included in the sale to Creative Loafing. Quarterfold's chief asset is its ownership interest in Index Newspapers. Amsterdam Weekly was a free, English-language weekly published in the Netherlands from May 2004¹ through December 2008. , it exists in limited form online. The paper was started by Todd Savage, who had been a writer and typesetter for the Chicago Reader in the late 1990s. The Reader was a major investor. In 2008, the paper was sold to Yuval Sigler, publisher of Time Out Tel Aviv, who with assets and staff including Savage launched Time Out Amsterdam in October 2008. ==References== ==External links== Chicago Reader website Chicago Reader History, a small collection of articles and documents Chicago Reader Records at the Newberry Library Chicago Reader Photographs: Performance collection at the Newberry Library Chicago Reader Photographs: News Collection at the Newberry Library Chicago Reader Artwork Collection at the Newberry Library

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