Published weekly since October 1972, the Reader is distributed free on Wednesday and Thursday via street boxes and cooperating retail outlets.

[1] Founder Jim Holman, a navy veteran, worked for the Chicago Reader before starting up in San Diego.

The initial press run of the San Diego Reader was 20,000 copies.

[3][4] In a 1989 story about the paper, the Los Angeles Times wrote that it had developed a reputation as being "liberal", and contrasted that to Holman's morality-driven rules for the paper, such as refusing to publish advertisements promoting abortion services and prohibiting personal advertisements seeking homosexual relationships (later modified to prohibit all personal ads).

[8] In February 2024, Jim Holman announced that the Reader has a new owner/editor Matt Lickona and that print publication would be shutting down.