diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index cef1b792..e5e73c20 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -738,7 +738,7 @@ checksum = "7f24254aa9a54b5c858eaee2f5bccdb46aaf0e486a595ed5fd8f86ba55232a70"
 
 [[package]]
 name = "hl"
-version = "0.25.2"
+version = "0.25.3-alpha.1"
 dependencies = [
  "atoi",
  "bincode",
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index f0e6e41d..f0895a16 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ categories = ["command-line-utilities"]
 description = "Utility for viewing json-formatted log files."
 keywords = ["cli", "human", "log"]
 name = "hl"
-version = "0.25.2"
+version = "0.25.3-alpha.1"
 edition = "2021"
 build = "build.rs"
 
diff --git a/src/output.rs b/src/output.rs
index b4e81b8b..b1640816 100644
--- a/src/output.rs
+++ b/src/output.rs
@@ -20,9 +20,16 @@ pub struct Pager {
 
 impl Pager {
     pub fn new() -> Result<Self> {
-        let pager = match env::var("PAGER") {
-            Ok(pager) => pager,
-            _ => "less".into(),
+        let mut pager = "less".to_owned();
+
+        if let Ok(p) = env::var("HL_PAGER") {
+            if !p.is_empty() {
+                pager = p;
+            }
+        } else if let Ok(p) = env::var("PAGER") {
+            if !p.is_empty() {
+                pager = p;
+            }
         };
 
         let pager = shellwords::split(&pager).unwrap_or(vec![pager]);