Fri, Jul 4, 2008
Easy Reader
Three decades of independent reporting
by Kevin Cody
Editor and publisher
Easy Reader was founded in 1970 by former Herald Examiner reporter
John Wilson and a group of fellow beach city residents. They believed
the mainstream press was failing to fairly report local news. Wilson
had quit the Herald after it, as well as the Los Angeles Times, refused
to print his story about the arrest of Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley’s daughter.
Society was in transition from the post World War II era of The Organization
Man to the protest culture of the ‘60s and ‘70s. The transition
was hastened by the introduction of cold type (photo offset printing),
which replaced the costly hot type (Linotype) printing used by newspapers
since the 1880s. Anyone with a typewriter and an X-acto knife could start
a newspaper.
Easy Reader’s early issues were typeset on a proportionate spacing, IBM Executive typewriter. Headlines and advertisements were drawn in ink by founding staff artist Hal Hiner. Graphically, the paper resembled the era’s many underground newspapers that embraced advocacy journalism consistent with counter culture values.
But instead of advocacy journalism, Easy Reader’s editorial philosophy was rooted in the concept of “truth force,” espoused by Gandhi and King. Instead of editorializing, the newspaper reported the facts readers needed to make their own, informed decisions.
Confidence in its readers has enabled Easy Reader to continue serving its ever evolving community without falling into the mainstream press rut of blindly supporting the status quo and entrenched powers.
The paper’s insistence on clear and unbiased reporting also ensures that it performs a newspaper’s foremost duty, which is to serve as a community watchdog.
Easy Reader broadly interprets this watchdog duty to include not only politics, but also the arts and sports.
Because it is the South Bay’s locally owned newspaper, Easy Reader’s reporting is not subject to the outside editorial and financial pressures that are undermining community newspapers across the nation.
Easy Reader’s beach base also ensures that its staff is ever mindful and deeply appreciative of the community’s support. This support has enabled the paper to grow from a circulation of 1,500 distributed twice monthly through businesses, to a 57,000 circulation weekly home delivered to El Segundo, Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach.
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