| Type | Alternative weekly |
|---|---|
| Owner | Village Voice Media |
| Editor | Gustavo Arellano |
| Headquarters | 2975 Red Hill Ave. Suite 150 Costa Mesa, California 92626 USA |
| Circulation | 70,008 (2011)[1] |
| Official website | ocweekly.com |
OC Weekly, a sister publication of both LA Weekly and The Village Voice, is a popular, free weekly paper (an alternative weekly) distributed in Orange County, California and also in Long Beach.
The paper targets corrupt California politicians of both major political parties and has been instrumental in several being arrested and sent to prison. "OC Weekly" routinely criticizes personalities such as former Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona, and maintains an active, award-winning news blog called Navel Gazing.
Among the most popular columns include "¡Ask a Mexican!" by Gustavo Arellano, which is now in syndication; its food section; and the award-winning investigative work of R. Scott Moxley, Nick Schou and Matt Coker. The Weekly's articles have resulted in FBI arrests, has led to the felony indictments of two consecutive Huntington Beach mayors, helped free innocent men and a woman from prison. and exposed the relationship between the local sheriff and an organized crime associate. In early 2009, that sheriff was sentenced to 66 months in federal prison. Other noteworthy coverage has included the Catholic Church sex-abuse scandal, and Orange County's controversial toll road, a multi-billion dollar subsidy to the richest man in OC: Donald Bren. Its articles get cited frequently by the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report. In 2009, a ranking California Republican state assemblyman and vice chairman of a powerful utilities committee resigned within hours of the Weekly disclosing his sexual relationship with a lobbyist for Sempra Energy, a giant California utility.
The paper can be picked up in many coffee shops, bookstores, clothing stores, convenience stores, boxes on the street, etc. OC Weekly takes pride in its art and entertainment listings for both Orange and Los Angeles counties, rivaling the larger Orange County Register and Los Angeles Times.
Since OC Weekly is a free paper, it relies on advertising support from local businesses. The OC Weekly is owned by Village Voice Media, which has recently come under scrutiny for its reliance on marijuana advertising and acquiesence to child and adult human trafficing via its so-called "backpage" ads, which are accessible on the OC Weekly website and the websites of other metropolitan "Weekly" publications of Village Voice Media. Most recently, in December 2011, the severely burned bodies of three female prostitutes were found in the Detroit area, and police determined that the women were linked to Village Voice and "backpage." (http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/30/justice/michigan-bodies-online-ads/index.html?iref=allsearch) Despite the provacative, and often spurious and questionable, articles posturing the OC Weekly as pro-active as to sexual misconduct of targeted invididuals, the publication's staff remains notably silent as to this damning issue.
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