Every once in a while the reader has just a completely fascinating, captivating article, like the one recently about Richard Nickel. That said, as far as what to do around town I MUCH prefer TimeOut Chicago even if I do have to pay for it. With the Reader, it's just too much crap to wade through. And Jonathan Rosenbaum...what is his deal? My boyfriend loves him but every time I read one of his reviews, even if it's a movie I've already seen, it's like "What the hell is he talking about?" It gets to be insufferable. However, I must give them an exta star for carrying my beloved Lynda Barry. Updated to add another star: Though I'm a Time Out subscriber now, I still find myself picking up the reader for their often interesting (though sometimes ridiculous) cover stories. I ADORE their long articles - one thing I hate about newspapers is how they don't usually give any details with their stories. I also love how The Reader will say shit about local politics no one else will. read more

I'm glad the Reader is still around. I saw they began offering subscribe by mail options for people who can't get to a box in the city. I wanted to help support independent journalism, so I bought an annual subscription in March. The first and then the second delivery dates came and went with no paper. They have an email address to contact with questions and issues about subscriptions that is a black hole. I emailed them more than once from a couple different addresses and got silence. The phone number they have listed is never answered, it just rings and rings. I finally had to start a dispute with my cc company as I paid for goods that were never delivered. If you want to read the Reader get it from a box in the city and skip the subscription by mail. read more

Would it be too generous of me to call The Reader the free version of Juxtapoz? Perhaps and probably. But that is what it reminded me of when I caught the cover of Chicago Reader for the first time. The magazine has a fair amount of style but also has substance as well. The reviews for music and movies seem extensive and not too terribly shallow. The articles are interesting and hold my interest while reading them. The magazine also has fairly extensive information on concert listings which is what I am always looking for! read more

Since I'm writing about Chicago magazines, can't not mention this one. The Chicago Reader use to be the sh!T. I would get the paper and look for upcoming shows, yard sales, jobs and more, but in the past few years, not so much. They seemed to have lost what they were. It's a shell of itself. Too bad. It's mostly just advertisements and crap now. read more

What have you done to my Chicago Reader?? Where are the sections, my weird corners of a divided paper that I knew so well over these many years? Today it is a tabloid! Today you will find the 'newly formatted' Chicago Reader in its new modern, easy-open format. Are they tryin to be RedEye or Village Voice or the Onion? Why did the reader submit to the homogenized format of their lesser printed brethren? Oh, forget it. I am beginning to like it. read more

Before I moved here I heard this was the 'it' paper to find out what's going on. But when I arrived and found it I was disappointed. This is like a larger version of the RedEye. Although useful sometimes, it more often than not is filled with a bunch of events and 'hey check this out' that I'm already aware of. And their website is awful. Looking through the classifieds especially. Wish I knew the wonderful-ness of the Reader before I moved - but now I'll pick it up when I'm waiting...but that's just b/c there's nothing else to read. So three stars for always being available everywhere! Apparently no one else wants to read you either! read more

While driving with my friend to the airport, I brought a reader along to read the matches out loud, specifically, the I Saw You's; always good for a good laugh and maybe a sentimental "aww"; sweetest one yet was a lady who just wanted to see if this girl who passed out or something on the el was all right. My other staple Reader read are the Early Warnings, key to planning my concerts as I am still in school and like to avoid late nights during midterm weeks. Lastly, the Reader helps me gauge things NOT to go to; you can just tell when an arts event is going to be filled with pretentious idiots based on their descriptions. It does not get full stars, because I kind of hate the layout for the film and theatre reviews; sometimes alphabetical order isn't the way to go (we have the dewy decimal system for a reason). read more

Yea! to everything about the Reader but Anti-Social. Liz Armstrong is ridiculous and boring. Someone should tell her that. So glad she's going to Vegas. They'll love her image obsessed antics I'm sure. read more

Chicago Reader you are one of my favorite newspapers. You lost me a bit with going from 4 sections down to 3. I mean I really liked having that massive section 4 with everything classified but...eh, it's okay...I still heart you. I wish you could be a little less inky tho. read more

Awesome alternative newspaper featuring Chicago's best. Free, even out here in the sticks when you can find it. I love the personal ads - I started reading them when I was about twelve and I still enjoy their postmodern flair. Good place to find an apartment, a cool part-time job, furniture, or to sell something. Comprehensive concert and movie listings at large and small venues. This is the newspaper that got me started on Zippy the Pinhead and Life in Hell. read more

I hate newsprint but will sometimes pick up the reader for an interesting cover story. Its classifieds are very entertaining reading as well. The recent format changes are much appreciated. But I really wish they'd go another half step closer to glossy so that when you're done reading it your fingers don't look like you just had your prints taken on your way to Cook County Correctional. read more

I am a photographer. The reader asked people to submit photos for their year end 1000 words issue. I submitted many. Im not bitter that they did not print mine, I AM DISGUSTED that they printed five photographs by the same artist. Who is Katherine Hodges related to? In a city where images are acquired by plenty of talented artists - many whom you can see on the reader's flickr site - WHY ARE WE PRINTING FIVE IMAGES BY THE SAME PERSON? I can only surmise that someone benefitted from this - and it wasn't the Readers readers. Last issue I will read. KMA read more

The Reader is a great place to look for housing and alternative distractions. I vividly remember an add placed many years ago in the alternative lifstyle section. It read as follows:"Wanted, young boy to insert carrots up my poop chute." You just don't see that in the Trib classifieds!! Great entertainment section for local bands as well. read more

I was sad to see the reader sold. I was worried about the quality of the articles, and losing the strong local flair that it had. I am stilll a bit worried but everythign still seems very good. I do like the new layout of the paper better making it much easier to read. Whenever I am looking for a restaurant, band, movie, play, or something fun to do, the Reader will be the first place I turn. read more

There's two stars missing, and they represent the selling of the paper, and it's downward spiral. Laying off some its great and world famous investigative reporters (ahem, Conroy, ahem)? Clipping out more and more space from the news section? The Reader is probably rightfully considered Chicago's best free paper, but a great many of us pick it up every week for the news. Honestly, if they dropped Joravsky, I would have to start passing it by. I can get the cultural stuff from the Onion, UR, or a hundred other places. I can get the classifieds from the big papers or craigslist. I can even get the alt-cartoons and columns like News of the Weird from other sources. But I can't get the kind of reporting the Reader (used to?) brings, and certainly not from the Tribune, Scum-Times, or... well, what else is there? Not much... read more

Decent paper, though I remember it being better in the 90s. Or maybe things get better the further away you are from them. Once in a while they'll have a good article. They have a good classified section. Everything is viewable online, so don't waste paper, just go to: www.chicagoreader.com read more

It's sad to say it but...the Reader isn't what is used to be. Yes there are still some GREAT articles but the paper has gone from having many sections to having just a few. I remember when the Reader was THE place to go to buy things, get reviews, look for a new apartments and much more. Now just a few articles many listings for the same places and lots of ads. read more

Oh the demise of the reader is tragic. Craigslist, Time Out...both brutalizing precious classified and ad revenue. Still, so great to still have a free arts weekly with some excellent content from time to time. Music section is comprehensive and trustworthy, too.... read more

The Reader is a great publication but a bit intimidating. Sometimes it's impossible to find the day it comes out and it's always an inch thick or more. I like looking at all of the concert ads and such. I used to pick up the Reader all the time to job hunt, but when I found out they are all posted online, I soon gave up hunting down the Reader. I usually just pick up the Red Eye to look at the day's news and movie times. read more

I love the Chicago Reader, they have the best entertainment listings and you can always find something to do. If you can't find it in the Reader it isn't going on or you can't read. They also have a great section for apartments and such. read more

The Reader is great for the listings in section 2 (the Gapers Block website occasionally misses an interesting event), the musical "early warnings" in section 3, and the matches, which are always entertaining. The rest of it...ehn. At least Liz Armstrong is gone. read more

For a free weekly newspaper, the Reader is the best bargain in the city, bar none. At times, it's even more essential reading than the Sun-Times or Trib. Most people pick it up for the entertaiment listings and that's reasonable. It is, to say the least, exhaustive. From the smallest little dingy bar band to the arena rock shows, from the storefront theater companies to the Goodman, nearly EVERTHING musical or theatrical and in-between is in one of the Reader's four sections. Suffice to say, if it's not listed in here, it's probably not worth going to see. That said, it's front section is the most underrated part of the Reader. Sure their cover stories can be a little, um, let's say lengthy (14 pages on a guy paints pictures on the inside of bottle caps would not be unusual). But when they go after a city bigwig or shady office or some other source of municipal corruption, look out. Their thorough research can reduce the subject of their investigation to a series of barely audible Gleason-like "hummina hummina hummina...". The saving grace for the ones getting skewered is that the mainsteam media, either print or electronic, rarely pick up on their stories. The rest of the inside of the first section of the Reader is similarly devoted to uncovering Chicago miniutia (sp?) that falls through the cracks of the mainstream press (which I guess is the role of the "alternative" press... duh). "Hot Type" examines the local media itself, Liz Armstrong does a love-her-or-loath-her send-up of a society page, and their highbrow reviews of movies like "King Kong" make it a must read and plays Muhammad Ali to the wasted-effort Chuck Wepner-like New City. In all, it's the best bargain in town. read more

The Reader is a great FREE Chicago paper - only gets updated once a week but it's a nice change from the typical Tribune/Sun Times paper with more in depth articles and their classifieds - great place to search for a place to live, too. read more

This is not so much a review of the actual printed publication, but of the website www.chicagoreader.com. I really love the search options on the film page, which allows you to search by what's playing everyday, with quick reviews attached, or to see what's coming, especially at some of the smaller or independent venues at The University of Chicago or Northwestern. There are often free screenings which I would not have been aware of without this organized source. And there are also just the non-film daily events, so you can see everything going on any given day in concerts, galleries, lectures,etc. I used to rely on Time Out for these, but I've found the Reader source much more comprehensive and helpful. I do read some of the articles onlne and follow the restaurant reviews. Their reviewers are excellent writers. So I really do consider The Reader as my primary go to source for film and cultural events in town. read more

Review of the Classifieds---not great. I really enjoy the printed paper and we had a rental unit available and thought it would be a good target audience. I was unable to do it online the day I needed to, so I phoned it in. The rep was ok but didn't explain any of the upgrade options so my ad wouldn't be lost in a sea of better real estate ads. When I checked it out online the search options were annoying and required many, many clicks to show high numbers of click throughs. When I finally found my ad, it was adequate but was not going to catch anyone's eye. I wish that they would have encouraged me to choose some of the options available. The day it started running online I got 2 solicitation calls from locators. It continued with a few more after it went to print. All in all, we got our tenant elsewhere. I would say if you spend a good amount of time and compare what else is on the site to be sure you are competitive that is imperative to your success. Don't count on the staff to give you much direction on maximizing your ad. Be prepared to be solicited. They didn't do anything wrong per se, just the minimum and are being used by solicitors. Not fun for me. read more

the largest local free paper, which pretends to be all about the culture & politics of the city, but it's really, for the most part, for & about the white people in the city. i spoke with a guy who works at the reader & they are very cognizant & deliberate in their bias as they consider it to bring in more ad revenue. no thanks. had more than enough a long time ago. not that they have zero to offer, but i detest that sort of bias, particularly in an incredibly diverse city such as chi. since i'm not a white-o-file & i'm actually interested in what's happening in the city, spanning all of the ethnic & cultural groups, this doesn't have much to offer me. read more