Type Alternative weekly Editor Margaret Downing | Format Tabloid Publisher Stuart Folb Founded 1989 | |
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The Houston Press is an alternative weekly newspaper published in Houston, Texas, United States. It is headquartered in the Midtown area.
Contents
The paper is supported entirely by advertising revenue and is free to readers. The newspaper reports a monthly readership of more than 200,000 print readers and 1.6 million online users. The Press can be found in restaurants, coffee houses, and local retail stores. New weekly editions are distributed on Thursdays.
The weekly Houston Press was founded in 1989. Chris Hearne (founder of Austin's Third Coast Magazine) and Kirk Cypel (a Vice President of a Houston-based investment group) conceived of this news and entertainment weekly after rejecting a business plan to relaunch Texas Business Magazine. Hearne was the paper's first publisher and Cypel served as the organization's business advisor. Although the paper faced early challenges, the landscape changed when Hearne and Cypel engineered a buyout of 713 Magazine, a key competitor. Once in control of 713, they stopped its publication and converted advertisers to the Houston Press. Thereafter, the Houston Press's advertising and circulation grew dramatically.
For the newspaper's first five years, Niel Morgan served as the investor. It was bought out by New Times Media in 1993. In 2005, New Times acquired Village Voice Media, and changed its name to Village Voice Media. In September 2012, Village Voice Media executives Scott Tobias, Christine Brennan and Jeff Mars bought Village Voice Meda's papers and associated web properties from its founders and formed Voice Media Group.
Headquarters
The headquarters of the Houston Press are located in Midtown Houston on LaBranch Street.
Prior to 1998, the Houston Press was located in Suite 1900 of the 2000 West Loop South building in Uptown Houston, off of the 610 Loop West Loop. In 1998, it moved to a new location in Downtown Houston, which became the Houston Press building and was originally built in 1927. That building is in close proximity to the ExxonMobil Building.
Shelor Motor Company was the first occupant of the Downtown Houston building. Beginning in the 1960s, it served as the Gillman Pontiac dealership building. In 1994 Suzanne Sellers painted a 50-foot (15 m) by 240-foot (73 m) trompe-l'œil mural that is located around two of the building's sides. This mural is visible from Leeland, Milam, and Travis streets. In 2008 the Houston Press building received damage from Hurricane Ike since the hurricane caused water to go through the parking area on the building's roof into the offices. In 2010 the Houston Press installed new energy efficient windows in place of the original glass windows on the facility's second and third floors. On the weekend after Friday October 25, 2013 the Houston Press was scheduled to move to its new offices in Midtown.
Awards from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies
2007
2005
2004
2003
2001
2000
1999
1998
Other recent awards of note include Todd Spivak's 2006 first place win in the Investigative Reporters and Editors Association under 100,000 circulation weekly category, and Rich Connelly's first place in the humor category of the under 100,000 circulation bracket of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.