The Reader is an alternative newspaper in Omaha, Nebraska.
The Reader was established in 1984 by a group that included John Heaston, Dan Beckmann, and others. Beckmann bought out Heaston in 1999, then sold nearly all of his ownership interest in February 2000 to 77-year-old Alan Baer, a member of the family that had founded the J. L. Brandeis and Sons department store chain. Baer replaced Beckmann as publisher a few months later.
Meanwhile, John Heaston established another paper, the Omaha Weekly, in March 2000. After Alan Baer died in November 2002, Heaston bought the Reader and merged it with the Weekly.
The Reader's corporate owner, Pioneer Publishing, also publishes several other papers and websites, including the Spanish language El Perico.
In January 2015, The Reader changed its publication frequency from weekly to monthly and increased daily content on The Reader's website.