CITY Newspaper

About CITY Newspaper

CITY Newspaper — now branded CITY Magazine — is the alternative weekly newspaper of Rochester, New York. First published on October 5, 1971, and founded by Mary Anna and Bill Towler, it is distributed free at more than 600 locations across Rochester and the Finger Lakes region. Owned by its founders from 1971 until 2019, the paper was sold to the WXXI Public Broadcasting Council in May 2019, when the Towlers decided to retire. It operates as part of WXXI's for-profit arm and is a member of the Association of Alternative Newsmedia.

The publication's website is rochestercitynewspaper.com (also operating as roccitymag.com), which maintains free online archives of the paper's decades of coverage.

Founding in 1971

CITY Newspaper was launched in 1971 by Mary Anna and Bill Towler, with the first issue published on October 5, 1971. A group of concerned Rochesterians helped produce the early paper, and others bought stock to provide the money for its early years — a community-funded beginning typical of the alternative press of the era. The paper arrived as Rochester's answer to the alternative-weekly movement then sweeping American cities, offering an independent, free voice alongside the city's daily, the Democrat and Chronicle.

From the start, CITY combined the alternative-weekly staples — local politics, arts and entertainment, investigative reporting — with a deep commitment to Rochester's neighborhoods and cultural life.

Five Decades of Towler Ownership

Mary Anna and Bill Towler owned and ran CITY Newspaper from 1971 until 2019 — 48 years of continuous founder ownership, an extraordinary run in American community journalism. Through the rise and fall of the alternative-weekly industry, the Towlers kept the paper independent, free, and locally owned, building it into a Rochester institution.

The paper's longevity under the same ownership gave it a distinctive stability: generations of Rochester readers grew up with CITY as the guide to the city's music, food, arts, and politics, and generations of local journalists passed through its newsroom.

Sale to WXXI (2019)

In December 2018, WXXI signed a letter of intent to purchase CITY Newspaper, and the sale to the WXXI Public Broadcasting Council was completed in May 2019, as the Towlers went into retirement. In considering the proposal, WXXI worked with the New York Council of Nonprofits, with support from the United Way of Greater Rochester's Synergy Fund, to assess the acquisition.

Under the deal's structure, WXXI remains a not-for-profit public media organization, while CITY continues as a weekly newspaper and digital publication owned by a for-profit subsidiary of WXXI — Rochester Area Media Partners LLC. WXXI leaders said their goal was to preserve and expand the quality and depth of local reporting and to prioritize coverage of the arts, culture, and life in the greater Rochester area. As the Towlers wrote at the time, the sale would "continue the work that we and a series of talented Rochesterians have been doing for nearly 50 years."

The acquisition was unusual in American media: a public broadcaster buying an alternative weekly. WXXI had previously added the Little Theatre to its portfolio in 2011, and the CITY purchase extended its model of combining broadcast, cinema, and print under one community-media umbrella.

CITY Magazine: The Current Brand

Under WXXI ownership, the publication has been rebranded as CITY Magazine, with a focus on arts and culture. The weekly newspaper and its digital publication continue, committed to local, long-form news coverage, curated entertainment experiences, lifestyle reporting, and events calendars — with the stated goal of driving arts discovery and appreciation across the greater Rochester area.

WXXI has said that all of its outlets maintain their unique editorial voices while strengthening coverage of important issues in the region, and that digital content would expand to reach and engage more people through creative original programming and social media.

Distribution and Readership

CITY is free in more than 600 locations across Rochester and the Finger Lakes region — the coffee shops, bookstores, restaurants, galleries, and street boxes where its culturally engaged readership congregates. The free-distribution model, unchanged since 1971, remains central to its identity and its appeal to advertisers seeking Rochester's arts and entertainment audience.

Editorial Leadership

The paper's editor is Leah Stacy, who leads the newsroom's coverage of Rochester arts, culture, and local affairs. The publisher of record is Rochester Area Media Partners LLC, WXXI's for-profit subsidiary created for the acquisition. The newsroom staff has historically numbered around nine staff writers, supplemented by freelancers and contributors from Rochester's creative community.

Association of Alternative Newsmedia

CITY is a member of the Association of Alternative Newsmedia (AAN), the trade association of alternative weekly newspapers and local publishers in North America. AAN membership connects the paper to the national alternative-press community — its awards competitions, training, and advocacy — and reflects CITY's continued identity as an alt-weekly even under public-broadcaster ownership. CITY photographers and writers have been recognized in AAN's AltWeekly Awards over the years.

Coverage and Content

CITY's editorial mix spans long-form local journalism, arts and culture criticism, music and film coverage, food and dining writing, and comprehensive events calendars. Its film coverage, tied in part to WXXI's operation of the Little Theatre — Rochester's historic art-house cinema — gives the publication a distinctive cultural footprint. The paper has long been the definitive guide to what's happening in Rochester's galleries, clubs, theaters, and restaurants.

Free Online Archives

The publication maintains free online archives, making decades of its Rochester coverage accessible to readers and researchers — a valuable historical record of the city's cultural and political life since 1971.

Place in Rochester Media

In Rochester's media landscape, CITY occupies the alternative niche alongside the Democrat and Chronicle (the daily, published since 1833), the Rochester Business Journal, the Daily Record, and WXXI's own broadcast outlets. Its nearly 55-year run — from a community-funded 1971 startup through 48 years of Towler ownership to its current place within WXXI Public Media — makes it one of the longest-lived alternative weeklies in the United States, and a model of how alt-weeklies can survive through reinvention.

WXXI Public Media: The Parent Organization

CITY's owner, the WXXI Public Broadcasting Council, is one of upstate New York's major public media organizations, with roots tracing back to 1958. WXXI operates television and radio stations serving the Rochester region — including WXXI-TV (channel 21), the PBS member station; news/talk radio on 1370 AM and 105.9 FM; and classical music on 91.5 FM — along with the Little Theatre, the historic art-house cinema it has operated as a subsidiary since 2011. The organization's president and CEO is Chris Hastings, a Peabody Award-winning documentary producer who succeeded longtime leader Norm Silverstein.

The combination of broadcast stations, a historic cinema, and an alternative weekly under one roof is unusual in American public media, and WXXI has framed it as a model for sustaining local journalism: shared resources across platforms, a for-profit structure for the newspaper that preserves its editorial independence, and a unified commitment to arts and culture coverage. For CITY, the arrangement has provided institutional stability rare among alt-weeklies — backing from a public media organization with deep community roots, at a time when independent alternative papers continue to close across the country.

More than five decades after Mary Anna and Bill Towler printed the first issue on October 5, 1971, CITY endures as Rochester's alternative voice — free, independent in spirit, and now sustained within one of upstate New York's strongest public media organizations.