San Diego Reader

The San Diego Reader is an alternative press newspaper in San Diego County, California. Published weekly since October 1972, the Reader is distributed free on Wednesday and Thursday via street boxes and cooperating retail outlets.^[1]

San Diego Reader

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

History

Founder Jim Holman, a navy veteran, worked for the Chicago Reader before starting up in San Diego. The initial press run of the San 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, the Reader moved into a former restaurant in Little Italy and moved to offices in Golden Hill in 2012.^[4][5]

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).^[3] He also runs the anti-abortion California Catholic Daily website from the same offices.^[6][7][8]

Due to the impact 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]

References

1. "San Diego Reader - AltWeeklies.com". archive.altweeklies.com.
2. Popescu, Roxana (February 19, 2025). "'A cultural shift you can't deny': San Diego Reader ceases printing and goes fully digital". San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved February 21, 2025.
3. Brass, Kevin (May 18, 1989). "Off the Wall With Reader Publisher". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
4. Showley, Rowley (May 31, 2012). "San Diego Reader moving to Golden Hill". San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
5. Showley, Roger (July 24, 2012). "Reader owner completes purchase for newspaper office". San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
6. Davis, Kelly (December 21, 2011). "Jim Holman's quest to amend California's abortion law". San Diego City Beat. Archived from the original on March 24, 2012. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
7. Grace, Jeff. "Contact Us". California Catholic Daily. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
8. "Reader owner bankrolls pro-life Democrat". San Diego Union-Tribune. April 14, 2012. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
9. Dotinga, Randy (April 8, 2020). "Local Media's Crucible: News Consumption Is Up, But Revenue Is Way Down". Voice of San Diego. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
10. Wallace, Anthony; Castillo, Carlos; Dixon Evans, Julia (February 20, 2025). "San Diego Reader ends print edition after 52 years". KPBS Public Media. Retrieved February 21, 2025.
11. Stone, Ken (February 16, 2025). "San Diego Reader Ends 52-Year Print Run, But Will Keep the Alt-Press Faith Online". Times of San Diego. Retrieved February 16, 2025.

External links

• California portal

• San Diego Reader History