High Plains Reader

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An example cover of The High Plains Reader. Issue dated Oct. 3, 2002.

The High Plains Reader is an independent weekly tabloid printed in Fargo, North Dakota and distributed, free of charge, across the Red River Valley region of North Dakota and Minnesota, with an estimated readership of 20,000 to 30,000 weekly between print and online readers. The tabloid was founded in 1994 by Ian Swenson, Peter Ryan, and Len Schmid in Grand Forks, North Dakota and is currently owned by Raul Gomez and John Strand who purchased the paper in late December of 1996. After a flood and fire destroyed their Grand Forks office, the Reader moved its office to Fargo, while still covering both Fargo and Grand Forks.

An example cover of The High Plains Reader. Issue dated June 2, 2005.

The paper features reviews of bands, movies, and theater in Fargo-Moorhead, plus a calendar of weekly events. Its editorials generally take a more leftist tack than those of The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead.

In 2004, the Reader celebrated its 10th Birthday Party in different venues in Fargo-Moorhead, including Ralph's Corner Bar.

Recurring portions of the High Plains Reader include the weekly editorial, generally written by editor John Strand; the "Dear John" section for letters to the editor; the cover story; a theater column; movie reviews, one by writer Greg Carlson, who covers current movies, and one by Christopher Jacobs, who often writes about his own film productions and DVD releases of rare and classic movies, a Best Bets section, generally giving brief synopses of upcoming events, focusing mostly on local musicians; and a calendar section, a detailed list of daily events for the upcoming week.

An example cover of The High Plains Reader. Issue dated No. 3, 2005.

[edit] Controversial sex column

Regular columnist Ed Raymond withdrew his "The Gadfly" column after the Reader began carrying Allison Moorhead's sex column in late 2004, which had a controversial and short (two column) run at North Dakota State University's newspaper The Spectrum.

The column was not in a question-and-answer format, but rather, offered general information about sexual activities, including accounts of the writer's own. Critics saw little more than shock value in the column.

Moorhead stopped writing for the Reader in early 2005. Ed Raymond returned to writing his column the following June.