Biography
Founded in 1979 as a counterbalance to the conservative, corporate- owned daily paper, Random Lengths News draws on the rich history of the Los Angeles Harbor Area. The name harkens back to a description of the lumber that used to run through the port — it came in “random lengths and widths” — but it could easily describe the cultural and racial diversity of the Harbor Area: in the most diverse part of the world, the Harbor Area has working, middle and upper class folks, and is a mix of Latinos, African-Americans, Asian- Americans and Anglos from all over the globe. The paper reflects that diversity in its coverage and in its makeup, and writes fundamentally about the people that make up the community, the characters in the play of life.
Random Lengths is in one of the most strategic parts of Los Angeles County, where the adjacent Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are the busiest in the world, it is the only paper that covers the entire area. Its circulation area grows each year, expanding farther north this year, adding new readers, new markets and new advertisers.