The Stranger has a new sibling! Our parent company, Noisy Creek, has acquired Chicago Reader—the country’s first and longest-running alt weekly.
Noisy Creek bought The Stranger and the Portland Mercury last year, as part of a plan to reinvest in local (and print!) media. “We’re excited to grow our model beyond the Pacific Northwest,” says Brady Walkinshaw, the founder of Noisy Creek. “By linking iconic weeklies like The Stranger, the Portland Mercury, and now Chicago Reader, we’re showing how local journalism can thrive when communities, philanthropy, and creative business models work together.”
The Reader was founded in 1971 by a group of friends with $16,000 between them, and over the last five decades, it’s has been Chicago’s best choice for investigative journalism, long-form reporting, and arts coverage and criticism. The paper has long been known for its award-winning feature writing, from 19,000 words on beekeeping in the late Seventies to the 1988 article titled “A Fire in the Family,” which followed three generations after an apartment building fire, as a window into working-class Chicago. “The Reader has grown with Chicago, shaping the city through its unique voice, perspective and fearless investigative journalism,” said Eileen Rhodes, Board Chair of the Reader.
If you’re not familiar with the Reader‘s work, fix that. Allow me to point you to their recent feature about trans guys getting acquainted with their new dicks, their investigation into a lab that misled courts on cannabis DUI cases, or if you want to go back in time, their award-winning 1992 feature, “A Simple Game,” about high school basketball.
Welcome to the family!
