The San Diego Door

Founded by publisher Dale Herschler in January 1968 and published on a biweekly schedule, The San Diego Door was initially based in La Mesa and loosely connected to campus activism at nearby San Diego State University.

Good Morning, Teaspoon, began as a local underground which first published in October 1966, and was edited by Don Monkerud, Jim Willems, and Jon Gulledge. The new editor, Jim Milligan, published a citywide paper in February 1968. In the summer of 1968, Good Morning Teaspoon merged with and began being published under the titles Teaspoon and Door and Teaspoon Door for a few issues, before reverting to The San Diego Door.

In 1969 the paper became Door to Liberation, and after switching to free distribution in local drop boxes, with a 10,000 copy run, it became the Free Door to Liberation.

In May 1970, after 53 issues, The Door was rebooted with a staff shake-up. Dale Herschler left and the remaining staff adopted a gentler, more laid-back and hippie-ish look and feel for the paper. A few months later the San Diego Free Press was launched by students at the University of California, San Diego as a more strongly New Left politically oriented newspaper in the local underground press.

Music journalism references

Reference to the long defunct underground San Diego Door newspaper was made in the 2000 film