The paper boasts of reaching 125,000 readers as of 2004[update], making it one of the oldest, largest and most influential African-American newspapers in the Western United States.

The Sentinel was also noted for their coverage of the changing African-American daily life experience in the post-1992 Los Angeles Riots era.

[3] The paper mainly focuses on and thus enjoys most of its circulation in the predominantly African-American neighborhoods of South Los Angeles, Inglewood and Compton.

The office is on Crenshaw Boulevard with commercial corridor in the Hyde Park neighborhood which is known as "the heart of African American commerce in Los Angeles".

On March 17, 2004, the Sentinel was purchased and came under the direction of real estate developer and community activist Danny Bakewell.