Easy Reader is back in downtown Hermosa Beach
After six years away, in an office complex on Pacific Coast Highway, the Easy Reader offices are back where they belong, in the heart of downtown Hermosa.
The new address: 67 14th Street, right next to the Grandview Inn.
“It’s very uplifting to be here,” says Kevin Cody, the owner-publisher of the Easy Reader. The former architect’s office is “very bright, it’s got lots of white walls, and a much cheerier atmosphere.”
The Easy Reader, founded in 1970, had historically always been in downtown Hermosa, starting on 22nd Street in the building that now houses the Bottle Inn, the third story above the old Bijou Theater on Hermosa Avenue, and for over 20 years in a 3400 square foot office at 832 Hermosa Avenue, which is now Unita, a shared workspace.
“I missed being downtown,” Cody says. “It’s easier access for people who wanted to visit the office, and just a nicer work environment.” Plus, he likes being closer to the beach, which is less than a block away. “It’s a great place to take a break and visit.”
He has room for 10-12 people and all those bound copies of ER that date back to the 1970s.
“This was the easiest move we’ve done, because so much of what we have is in the cloud now,” he says. “We didn’t have millions of file drawers and photo archives. The biggest thing is 50 years of bound volumes.”
See the beach in the background of the Easy Reader offices in Hermosa
And why not just put those into storage? “You’d be surprised how frequently reporters come looking for a story that pre-dates the website,” and reach for the bound copies. “If they know the year, they can find it.”
Easy Reader publisher Kevin Cody behind his desk at the new ER offices
Meanwhile, even in the face of harder times financially to run a newspaper, Cody still keeps the Easy Reader going “because I love writing stories about the beach cities. I believe in the mission. We provide a service to the community.”
ER