The paper was founded in 1977 by Ray Hartmann who, along with co-owner Mark Vittert, sold the newspaper in 1998 to New Times Media (later known, following a 2006 merger, as
Village Voice Media). In September 2012, Village Voice Media executives Scott Tobias, Christine Brennan and Jeff Mars agreed to purchase Village Voice Media's papers and associated web properties from its founders and formed
Voice Media Group. In 2015,
Euclid Media Group acquired the
Times from Voice Media Group. The paper received more than three dozen awards from the
Missouri Press Association, along with the group's Gold Cup. The paper and website featured a weekly
syndicated column by relationship and sex
advice writer Dan Savage. In the past, the paper carried Chuck Sheppard's
News of the Weird column. Former journalists that wrote for the paper include Suzanne Langlois, who won the 1994 Con Lee Kelliher award for distinguished achievement. In June 2019, editor-in-chief Sarah Fenske announced her departure after being selected to host
St. Louis on the Air on
St. Louis Public Radio. News editor Doyle Murphy was selected as interim editor-in-chief. Murphy served as editor-in-chief until he announced in the February 9, 2022, edition that he would be leaving the paper to work for
St. Louis Public Radio. Ben Westhoff, the executive editor of Euclid Media Group, served as interim editor-in-chief following Murphy's resignation, but announced on February 24, 2022, that Rosalind Early, who was then serving as deputy managing editor for
Washington Magazine at
Washington University in St. Louis, would be the paper's next editor in chief, starting in March. In August 2023, Euclid Media Group dissolved and the newspaper was sold to Chris Keating, operating under the name Big Lou Holdings LLC. The paper was sold again in May 2024 to an unnamed buyer and all staff were laid off. The buyers were revealed to be individuals who promote
OnlyFans content creators under the LLCs Ready Set Cam and FanFox registered in Texas. Bound print backfiles of the
Riverfront Times spanning December 1977 to 2007 were donated to
Washington University in St. Louis Special Collections, and public librarians Jaclyn Crow and Joshua Lawrence archived digital content from the publication's last decade on a
Google Sites page. ==See also==