Silicon Valley-based Metro Newspapers is the leading publisher of alternative newsweeklies in the San Francisco Bay Area–the nation's number one market for the alternative press.

Educated, affluent Bay Area residents read more than twice as many urban weeklies per capita than their counterparts in metropolitan areas such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. And Metro's market share in this sector is larger than any other Bay Area publisher. Each week, more than half a million readers turn to Metro's publications to gain perspective on their communities and make decisions about their entertainment activities and consumer spending.

The owner-operated, locally based company was founded in 1985 by veterans of such newspapers as the LA Weekly, Santa Cruz Independent and San Diego Reader.

The flagship of the group is Silicon Valley's Metro, a free weekly newspaper that distributes more than copies throughout the valley at more than 1,000 locations in business districts, universities such as Stanford and well known high technology companies.

The company also publishes Good Times in Santa Cruz County and the North Bay Bohemian in California's wine country. In 2014, Metro acquired the Gilroy Dispatch, Morgan Hill Times and Hollister Freelance, publications with rich histories dating back to the 1800s.

A pioneer in online media, Metro was one of the first weekly publishers to go online, launching the LiveWire service in 1993, and Virtual Valley Community Network the following year. Today, its properties on the web are managed by sister company Boulevards New Media Inc., a network of community sites encompassing more than 20 major city.com addresses.

Metro's newspapers have won numerous state and national awards for excellence in such categories as investigative journalism, writing, design, arts criticism, food writing, business coverage, typography, community service, editorial cartoons, opinion pages, features, general news and columns. Metro's arts and entertainment coverage three times has been chosen as the best in California.

Metro Newspapers supports hundreds of community-based, non-profit organizations through a donated advertising space program that benefits film festivals, small theater companies, free concerts and community-based, business improvement efforts. In addition, the Metro/C2SV Community makes annual grants to groups working to alleviate hunger, homelessness, domestic violence, AIDS and age-based social problems in the Silicon Valley area.

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