BY JOSH ROGERS | Jennifer Goodstein, the owner of Chelsea Now and NYC Community Media, and her husband Les Goodstein have agreed to buy the Community Newspaper Group (CNG), which publishes 11 community newspapers in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx.
“This is an exciting time as we expand to the outer boroughs,” Chelsea Now publisher Jennifer Goodstein said of the purchase from News Corp. “My priority will remain the papers serving Lower Manhattan and Gay City News. From an editorial standpoint, the papers remain committed to serving the residents of Downtown Manhattan. Our sales and marketing team is eager to offer our advertisers great opportunities to reach new markets through the CNG newspapers, magazines, and websites.”
In addition to Chelsea Now and Gay City News, NYC Community Media also publishes Downtown Express, The Villager, and the East Villager.
Les Goodstein created Community Newspaper Group as an executive with News Corp. in 2006, and ran it until 2013. “Besides my love of newspapers, it was an honor to complete this transaction with News Corp.,” he said in a statement. “I look forward to the continued success of the Community Newspaper Group. Both my wife and I are members of the community and are pleased to continue serving the readers of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. We plan to expand local coverage with local news important to the neighborhoods we serve.”
Chelsea Now and its sister publications will be moving later this month to CNG’s Downtown Brooklyn office at One MetroTech. It’ll be familiar territory, as the papers temporarily relocated there at the end of 2012 because of damage to its Canal St. office caused by Hurricane Sandy.
Jennifer Goodstein, who bought the Community Media papers in 2012, said the long-term plan is to set up a satellite office in Manhattan.
CNG, which distributes over 235,000 papers a week, publishes Caribbean Life, The Brooklyn Paper, The Bronx Times Reporter, Bay News and Bay Ridge Courier, Bayside Times and the TimesLedger. It also publishes specialty magazines, including the Wedding Guide and Sweet Sixteen Magazine.
The terms of the deal were not released.
In a statement, Robert Thomson, chief executive of News Corp., said the sale “helps us reshape the News Corp. portfolio as we achieve greater globalization and digitization of our businesses….We’re confident that these newspapers and magazines will prosper under the leadership of Les and Jennifer Goodstein.”
Phone numbers and email addresses for Chelsea Now and NYC Community Media staff are expected to remain the same after the move.
