Surviving as a free downtown print weekly since Richard Nixon was President is no mean feat. So kudos to Los Angeles Downtown News editor and publisher Sue Laris for making it to a 40th anniversary year.

For this week’s celebratory issue, Laris has updated her long and very amusing essay  ”How To Start Your Own Newspaper,” originally written to mark her paper’s 30th anniversary.  The piece starts out as a checklist for prospective media barons and eventually detours to a golden anecdote:

The total we needed to start the company was $1,400, which was a lot of money to us at the time. I had no idea of the right way to get a business loan, so I walked into our bank, then a United California Branch in Inglewood, and asked for the loan officer.

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With newspaper advertising revenues continuing to slide in the wrong direction, the Los Angeles Downtown News is asking readers to become paid supporters of the free 40-year weekly newspaper.

Founder Sue Laris wants readers to donate $5 a month or a lump sum donation to help keep the newspaper afloat.

And if readers become a paid supporter, they will receive a photograph and the name of their favorite charity in the newspaper and on the website.

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