Chicago Reader names new publisher

A third-generation Chicagoan from South Shore will be the Chicago Reader’s next publisher.

Malik Johnson, who was previously the executive director and publisher of South Side Media Works, which oversees South Side Weekly and Hyde Park Herald, will join the newsroom June 1, the publication announced Monday.

“The Reader has a rich and storied history that stands on its own, and I’m thrilled to help usher in a new beginning for the publication,” Jackson said in a news release.

The Reader was founded in 1971 in the Kenwood neighborhood. In 2018, the Chicago Sun-Times sold the Reader to a group led by Dorothy Leavell, the publisher of the Chicago Crusader and Gary Crusader newspapers.

In recent years, the paper has struggled to stay afloat.

In 2022, the Reader nearly shuttered during a dispute among board members over the paper’s leadership. The dispute, which prevented the paper’s transition to nonprofit ownership, centered around concerns about then co-publisher and president, Tracy Baim. By the end of 2022, Baim stepped down from her position.

In January 2025, the publication laid off six employees to reduce costs and prevent closure. Later that year, the Reader was acquired by Noisy Creek, a media company dedicated to alternative weekly publications such as The Stranger in Seattle and the Portland Mercury.

The paper returned to print in February as monthly magazine instead of a weekly newspaper.

In an editors note announcing the paper’s return in February, editor-in-chief Sarah Conway said the Reader was entering a “new era of Chicago journalism.”

Johnson will replace Amber Nettles as publisher. She previously came into the role in 2024, when the publication divided the roles of Solomon Lieberman, who had previously served as both CEO and publisher. In November 2025, she left to join EmpowerLocal as the chief partnerships officer.