AUSTIN, TX – The Austin Chronicle is celebrating 30 years as your independent news source for coverage on music, film, arts, and politics in Austin. The inaugural issue of The Austin Chronicle hit stands on Sept. 4, 1981, with co-founders Louis Black (editor) and Nick Barbaro (publisher) at the helm. Thirty years later, both Black and Barbaro have turned The Austin Chronicle into one of the most successful independently owned newsweeklies in the country.
After 30 years of distributing The Austin Chronicle, Louis Black reflects: “We’ve come to understand that though the staff puts the paper together, it really doesn’t own or control it. Instead the Chronicle, a living entity that is essentially born anew each and every week, belongs to the community, which it comes out of and serves.”
Black continues, “Keeping the paper relevant, vital, and fresh as it grows into the future means careful nurturing and reinvention.”
In honor of the occasion, the 30th anniversary issue on stands Thursday will unveil a redesign of the paper.
“What’s exciting about the redesign is that it brings out the things we love about printed matter,” enthuses Austin Chronicle Managing Editor Cindy Widner. “On a purely mechanical basis, the new font styles make it easier to read, so longer features will be a pleasure to sink into. Art and photos, particularly on the cover, will also tell a story. We’re putting more listings online so we can offer a fun, easy-to-use Calendar page, as well as focusing on a few specific areas in print: kids’ events, sports, “The Gay Place,” and “Day Trips.” Arts coverage will be more prominent, with the debut of “All Over Creation,” Robert Faires’ new column, and Arts reviews moving up front. Our Food listings will have more information and opinion from our top-notch food critics. And the issue will be stapled, so it’ll stay tidy – no more flopping around, with pages floating in the breeze.”
In celebration of our anniversary and for our readers, the Chronicle has invited Austin’s movie-mocking maestros, Master Pancake Theater, to help us celebrate our 30th anniversary in the newspaper business by lampooning the worst movie ever made about investigative journalism. Perfect (1985) stars John Travolta as a Rolling Stone reporter assigned to blow the lid off of the growing fitness club movement and Jamie Lee Curtis as a sexy instructor known as “The Pied-Piper of Aerobics Teachers.” Join us on Thursday, Sept. 8, at the Paramount Theatre. Visit austinchronicle.com/perfect for more details and to RSVP for the event – SPACE IS LIMITED!
The Austin Chronicle celebrates 30 years as Austin’s independent news source, covering music, film, arts, and politics, with 195,000 readers per week in the greater Austin metropolitan area. The Chronicle is the eloquent and incisive voice of the city, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. The Austin Chronicle is available at more than 1,800 locations every Thursday. For more information, visit austinchronicle.com.
