User:Trollstoy/sandbox

It was started in 1981 by Russ Smith and Alan Hirsch, the owners of the Baltimore City Paper. For its first year it was called 1981. The name was changed to City Paper in January 1982 and in December 1982 Smith and Hirsch sold 80% of it to Chicago Reader, Inc. In 1988, Chicago Reader, Inc. acquired the remaining 20% interest. In July 2007 both Washington City Paper and the Chicago Reader were sold to the Tampa-based Creative Loafing chain. The former Chicago Reader Inc., now named Quarterfold, still owns the building that houses Washington City Paper as well as minority stakes in other alternative newsweeklies.

In 2012, the Chicago Reader was acquired by Wrapports LLC, parent company of Sun-Times Media.

, including Robert E. McCamant, Thomas J. Rehwaldt and Thomas K. Yoder,

In its early years the Reader was published out of apartments shared by the owner-founders, Roth, McCamant, Rehwaldt and Yoder. The first apartment was in Hyde Park — the University of Chicago neighborhood on the south side of Chicago — and the second was in Rogers Park on the far north side. Working for ownership in lieu of pay, the owner-founders ultimately owned more than 80% of the company.

The precipitous decline in profits from 2004 to 2006 prompted owner-founder Tom Rehwaldt to file a lawsuit against the company. This lawsuit led to the sale of the Reader to Creative Loafing in July 2007.