- Metro Silicon Valley
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Metro Silicon Valley 
A Metro Silicon Valley newsrackType Alternative weekly Format Tabloid Owner Metro Newspapers Founded 1985 Headquarters 550 South First Street
San Jose, CA 95113-2806
United StatesCirculation 80,000 [1] Sister newspapers Santa Cruz Weekly, North Bay Bohemian ISSN 0882-4290 Official website metroactive.com Metro is a free weekly newspaper published by the San Jose, California, based Metro Newspapers. Also known as Metro Silicon Valley, the paper serves the greater Silicon Valley area. In addition to print form, Metro can be downloaded, in PDF format, for free from the publisher's website.[2] Metro also keeps tabs on local politics and the "chattering" class of San Jose through its weekly column, The Fly.
The newspaper has been published since 1985 and is one of the remaining owner-operated publications in the alternative press. Its principal distribution area encompasses the cities of San Jose, Los Gatos, Campbell, Saratoga, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Milpitas, Mountain View, Los Altos and Palo Alto.
Contents
Entertainment and investigative journalism
Metro is largely read for its coverage of the San Jose region's culture and entertainment scene. It publishes an exhaustive arts section, which has been edited by Michael S. Gant since 1990. The arts and entertainment section includes calendar listings, music reviews, critical coverage of the performing and visual arts, as well as movie reviews and information. The newspaper has employed well-regarded film critic Richard von Busack since 1985. Food critic Stett Holbrook edits the award-winning dining section. Steve Palopoli edited the publication from March 2005 until December 2008 and continued to edit music and special sections.
Metro has scooped the daily press on a number of major stories, including the office romance of San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales in 2000[3] and the Santa Clara County Grand Jury's plans to indict Gonzales in June 2006.
The newspaper has helped launch the careers of several notable writers, including British television sensation Louis Theroux, conspiracy authors Jonathan Vankin and John Whalen, technology journalist Michael Learmonth and Vietnamese-American author Andrew Pham. It also published the writings of Michelle Goldberg, six-word memoirist Larry Smith and Dave Eggers before they became published authors.
Awards
Metro has received several awards[4] for its work, including:
- Three papers in the Metro Newspapers group won at the National Newspaper Association's 1995 contest, announced September 1996.
- Metro won two awards, for editorial cartooning and writing, at the California Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspapers Awards, July 1996[5]
- Six papers in the Metro Newspapers group were honored for writing, editing and design at the California Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspapers Awards, July 1997.
- Metro Silicon Valley won two awards, in lifestyle coverage and freedom of information, at the California Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspapers Awards, July 2004.[6]
- Metro Silicon Valley won two awards at the California Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspapers Awards, October 2008.[7]
Early online player
Metro was an early participant in the online publishing revolution, launching the Livewire online service in 1993, one of the first online efforts by a non-daily newspaper publisher. The service offered free email accounts, online commerce, chats, posting forums and online articles.
Virtual Valley, a similar service with an emphasis on covering Silicon Valley communities, was launched the following year and helped put the city governments of San Jose, Milpitas and Los Gatos online. Also in 1994, Metro established Boulevards, a network of city guides that pre-dated Citysearch and Microsoft's short-lived "Sidewalk" service.
In 1995, Metro launched the online version of the newspaper on the Web under the brand Metroactive.
External links
- About Metro Newspapers (official site)
- Metroactive web site
- Metro Silicon Valley
- SV411 Silicon Valley Newsblog
- Metro: PDF edition
- Metro's "Boulevards" city site, SanJose.com
- San Jose Inside
References
- ^ "Metro Silicon Valley". Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. http://aan.org/alternative/Aan/ViewCompany?oid=oid%3A47. Retrieved 2007-02-23.
- ^ Metro Silicon Valley Launches PDF Download Edition, September 29, 2003, Metro Newspapers.
- ^ Office Romance? No Comment., Metro, Silicon Valley's Weekly Newspaper, September 7-13, 2000.
- ^ Awards, Metroactive's web awards, Metro Publishing Inc. Maintained by Boulevards New Media.
- ^ http://www.safero.org/articles/1996CaliforniaPubAwards.html
- ^ http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/07.21.04/fly-0430.html
- ^ http://aan.org/gyrobase/Aan/NewsByMember?Member=oid%3A47
Metro Silicon Valley • North Bay Bohemian • Santa Cruz Weekly
Boulevards • SF Station • Los Gatos ObserverCategories:- Newspapers published in the San Francisco Bay Area
- Alternative weekly newspapers published in the United States
- Publications established in 1985
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