The Express is known for its investigative and longform news and feature stories, along with its award-winning arts, food and wine coverage.

[3] The Express was an independent publication at the time and its first editor was veteran journalist John Raeside; 1978 also saw the passage of Proposition 13 and the election of Oakland's first African-American mayor, Lionel Wilson.

During the Aughts, the Express was the first news outlet to report on the bloody legacy of Your Black Muslim Bakery in Oakland.

[4] Throughout the decade, the Express also closely covered the FBI investigation of then-state Senator Don Perata of Oakland.

[3] On 17 May 2007, Village Voice Media announced the Express was being bought by then-editor Stephen Buel and a group of investors including Hal Brody.

[6][7] Jody Colley became publisher that year, and then Jay Youngdahl acquired majority control of the paper in August 2010.

[15][16] Buel resigned this role in 2018 after a dispute with writers about removed blog posts about race issues in music.

[17] Gammon then took on the role of publisher of the Express, and became editor again later in the year as well when Richards left, while Buel and Gallman remained majority owners.

[19] Less than a month later, Gammon left the paper to take a position in the office of California State Senator Nancy Skinner.

[20] In March 2020, the Express was sold to Weeklys, a 17-title regional media group that includes the North Bay Bohemian, the Pacific Sun, Santa Cruz’s Good Times, and Metro Silicon Valley.

[21] 2001 Express writers won four 2001 East Bay Press Club awards; the winners were Kara Platoni, Will Harper and Lisa Drostova.

[22] 2002 The Express won three 2002 awards from the Northern California Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists; the winners were Justin Berton, Will Harper and Kara Platoni.

[23] 2003 The Express received several honors from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies; the winners were: Mike Mechanic, Jesse Reklaw, Wahab Algarmi, Alixopulos, Stephen Buel, Josh Frankel, Fredo, Malcolm Gay, Hellen Jo, David Lasky, Thien Pham, Lark Pien, Chris Thompson, Mark Gartland and Jonathan Kauffman.

[26] The Express won twelve awards in the San Francisco/East Bay Press Club's 2004 Excellence in Print Journalism Contest.

[27] 2005 The International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors honored Express columnist Chris Thompson with one of its prestigious 2005 Golden Dozen Awards.

[28] The National Association of Black Journalists awarded a first place honor to Lauren Gard for "Good Kids, Bad Blood.

"[29] Kara Platoni won a Clarion Award for best newspaper feature story for "The Ten Million Dollar Woman.

"[30] Three Express reporters won awards from the Northern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists in its 2005 journalism contest.

[33] Jonathan Kauffman won top honors for restaurant criticism from the national Association of Food Journalists in its 2006 awards contest.

And Anneli Rufus was honored for criticism in the 2006 Excellence in Journalism awards, hosted by the Northern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

[35] The Express won nine first-place awards—and seventeen awards overall—in the East Bay Press Club's 2006 Excellence in Print Journalism contest.

[37] 2008 The Express won five awards, including three first-places, in the East Bay Press Club's annual Excellence in Print Journalism Contest for 2008.

[39] 2011 The Express won a first-place award in the 2011 Price Child Health and Welfare Journalism contest for "Pushing Foster Children off the Plank" by Angela Kilduff.

[40] 2012 The Express won three honors: The Northern California Independent Booksellers Association gave an award to publisher Jody Colley; Ali Winston, Joaquin Palomino and Robert Gammon were honored by PUEBLO, Oakland's police watchdog group; and Rachel Swan won an excellence in journalism award from the Society of Professional Journalists of Northern California.

Vanessa Rancaño won first place in the specialty story category for "Waste: The Dark Side of the New Coffee Craze."

Sam Lefebvre won a third-place award in the music criticism category for "Ava Mendoza's Natural Way" (4/3/13); "The Two Sides of Tony Molina" 5/8/13); and "A Man Without a Country (8/28/13)."

Sam Levin won a first place in the Arts and Culture reporting category for "When Corporations Want Profits, They Don't Ask for Permission."

And Joaquin Palomino won in the Outstanding Emerging Journalist category for "California's Thirsty Almonds" (2/5/14) and "The Water Tunnel Boondoggle" (5/13/14.

A 2005 profile of the environmentalist Van Jones noted that he had, in his youth, identified as a "communist" and been a member of the activist group Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM).

[51] In February 2009, the paper uncovered an alleged extortion scam by the user review website Yelp Inc.[52] After the story's publication, several lawsuits were filed against the company.