Metro_Silicon_Valley

Metro Silicon Valley

Metro is a free weekly newspaper published by the San Jose, California, based Metro Newspapers. Also known as Metro Silicon Valley to distinguish from its spin-off publication Metro Santa Cruz, the paper serves the greater San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to print form, Metro can be downloaded, in PDF format, for free from the publisher's website. Metro also keeps tabs on local politics and the "chattering" class of San Jose through its weekly column, The Fly.

The newspaper has been published since 1985 and is one of the remaining owner-operated publications in the alternative press. Its principal distribution area encompasses the cities of San Jose, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Milpitas, Mountain View, Los Altos and Palo Alto.

Entertainment and investigative journalism

Metro is largely read for its coverage of the San Jose region's culture and entertainment scene. It publishes an exhaustive arts section, which has been edited by Michael S. Gant since 1990. The arts and entertainment section includes calendar listings, music reviews, critical coverage of the performing and visual arts, as well as movie reviews and information. The newspaper has employed well-regarded film critic Richard von Busack since 1985. Food critic Stett Holbrook edits the award-winning dining section. Steve Palopoli was named editor in March 2005, taking over day-to-day duties from longtime editor Dan Pulcrano, who remains executive editor.

Metro has scooped the daily press on a number of major stories, including the office romance of San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales in 2000 and the Santa Clara County Grand Jury's plans to indict Gonzales in June 2006.

The newspaper has helped launch the careers of several notable writers, including British television sensation Louis Theroux, conspiracy authors Jonathan Vankin and John Whalen, and Vietnamese-American author Andrew Pham.

Awards

Metroactive has received several awards for its work, including:

Six papers in the Metro Newspapers group were honored for writing, editing and design at the California Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspapers Awards, July 1997.
Three papers in the Metro Newspapers group won at the National Newspaper Association's 1995 contest, announced September 1996.
Five papers in the Metro Newspapers group were honored for writing, editing and design at the California Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspapers Awards, July 1996.

Early online player

Metro was an early participant in the online publishing revolution, launching the Livewire online service in 1993, one of the first online efforts by a non-daily newspaper publisher. The service offered free email accounts, online commerce, chats, posting forums and online articles.

Virtual Valley, a similar service with an emphasis on covering Silicon Valley communities, was launched the following year and helped put the city governments of San Jose, Milpitas and Los Gatos online. Also, in 1994, Metro established Boulevards a network of city guides that pre-dated Citysearch and Microsoft's short-lived "Sidewalk" service.

In 1995, Metro launched the online version of the newspaper on the Web under the brand Metroactive.

Metro Silicon Valley launched the SV411 blog in May 2006.