Metro Silicon Valley is a free weekly newspaper published by the San Jose, California-based Metro Newspapers. The paper serves the greater Silicon Valley area, encompassing the cities of San Jose, Los Gatos, Campbell, Saratoga, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Milpitas, Mountain View, Los Altos and Palo Alto. It distributes more than 83,000 copies throughout the valley at more than 1,200 locations in business districts, universities such as Stanford and well known Silicon Valley companies.

Founded in 1985, Metro brings a unique voice to the region’s political, cultural, arts and entertainment scene. Its exhaustive arts section includes calendar listings, music reviews, critical coverage of the performing and visual arts, as well as movie reviews and information. The newspaper also publishes an award-winning dining section and keeps tabs on local politics through its popular weekly column, The Fly.

The newspaper is owned by its co-founder and CEO Dan Pulcrano, and is one of the few remaining owner-operated publications in the alternative press.

In 1994, the company began publishing Metro Santa Cruz (now the Santa Cruz Weekly), and assumed control of the Sonoma County Independent, which in October 2000 was renamed the Northern California Bohemian and expanded to cover Napa and Marin counties.

A pioneer in online media, Metro was one of the first weekly publishers to go online, launching the LiveWire service in 1993 and Virtual Valley Community Network the following year. Today, Metro’s award-winning content can be found on SanJose.com, a comprehensive resource for locals and visitors, Metroactive, a nightlife and entertainment service, and SanJoseInside.com, the leading source of political news and commentary.

Boulevards New Media Inc., a Metro spinoff, produces a national network of city guides, including more than 20 major city.com addresses including LosAngeles.com, SanFrancisco.com, Seattle.com and Denver.com.

Metro’s newspapers have won numerous state and national awards for excellence in such categories as investigative journalism, writing, design, arts criticism, food writing, business coverage, typography, community service, editorial cartoons, opinion pages, features, general news and columns. Metro’s arts and entertainment coverage has been chosen four times as the best in California.

Metro Newspapers supports hundreds of community-based, nonprofit organizations through a donated advertising space program that benefits film festivals, small theater companies, free concerts and community-based, business improvement efforts. In addition, The Metro Foundation, funded by Metro employees and readers, makes annual grants to groups working to alleviate hunger, homelessness, domestic violence, AIDS and age-based social problems in the Silicon Valley area.