The tabloid was founded in 1994 by Ian Swanson, 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 1996.

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

Christopher Hagen, or Co-owner John Strand; the cover story; features; opinion; wellness; a theater column; movie reviews by Greg Carlson; 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.

The Reader began carrying Allison Moorhead's sex column in late 2004, which had a controversial and short run at North Dakota State University's newspaper The Spectrum.

The column offered general information about sexual activities, including accounts of the writer's own, rather than a question-and-answer format.