that were included in its nameplate until April 2011—was originally distributed to gay bars in the South of Market, Castro District, and Polk Gulch areas of San Francisco.

The award-winning newspaper is well known for its editorial commentary, investigative reporting, extensive sports journalism, and arts and entertainment writing.

The name of the newspaper's parent company, Benro Enterprises Inc. (now BAR Media Inc.), was derived from a combination of Bentley and Ross.

[4] Assistant editors have included Dennis Conkin, Ben Carlson, Matthew Bajko, Zak Szymanski (until 2006), and Mark Mardon (until 2006), each of whom contributed breaking news and nationally renowned articles on topics such as public health, social justice, law, race relations, transgender issues, art and music, and politics.

[7] In 2009, the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco launched an online searchable database of the more than 10,000 obituaries and death notices that have appeared in the Bay Area Reporter, starting with the first such article published in the newspaper in 1979; many of the obituaries reflect the catastrophic toll of the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco from the early 1980s through the late 1990s.

The paper celebrated its 40th anniversary with a special edition published April 8, 2011, and with a week-long mini-exhibition and slide show of historic front pages at The GLBT History Museum in the Castro District of San Francisco.

A new company, BAR Media, Inc., was created, with Michael Yamashita, the newspaper's longtime general manager, becoming publisher with a 31 percent ownership.

Under the new structure, Yamashita became president and CEO of BAR Media Inc., while Thomas E. Horn, the foundation's executive director and the paper's publisher from 2003 to 2013, was named chairman of the board.

In July 2014, the Bay Area Reporter's staff relocated to their current location at 44 Gough Street, Suite 204, San Francisco, CA 94103.

The Bay Area Reporter bases its claim as America's oldest continuously published LGBT newspaper on the fact that the Washington Blade, which was founded 18 months earlier than the Bay Area Reporter, in October 1969, abruptly halted publication in November 2009 following the bankruptcy of its parent company, Window Media.

In April 2021, the Bay Area Reporter celebrated its 50th anniversary with an expanded commemorative issue that included multiple feature articles recounting highlights of the paper's coverage in news, politics, arts, and nightlife.