Owner and Publisher Tom Hartle grew up in the publishing business; his father was a publishing executive with LOOK magazine. Tom got his start as sales manager for the Detroit offices of Rolling Stone, Men's Journal and Smithsonian. Using mostly credit cards, he founded HOUR Detroit magazine in 1995. HOUR became one of the nation's most-recognized and -awarded regional magazines. Tom sold out of HOUR in the spring of 2000.

Tom and Heather Hartle founded Hartle Media–San Francisco in the fall of 2000; along with publishing 7x7 and California Home + Design magazines, the company became a partner in early 2006 in the ownership of Spin Media LLC, publishers of the national music magazine Spin.