Schneps Media, publisher of amNewYork and the largest group of community media in the New York region, has announced Monday that it has acquired the assets of METRO New York and METRO Philadelphia including the popular daily newspapers, websites and digital media business serving New York City and Philadelphia.
The acquisition positions Schneps Media as the leading media company in the New York City market as it will combine the two largest circulated daily newspapers into one, amNewYork METRO.
The merged publication will grow to a massive daily weekday circulation of 175,000 copies, which is more than double that of any of the other major metro dailies circulated in New York City’s five boroughs each weekday.
In addition, Schneps adds over 350,000 in weekly circulation with its community newspapers serving Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx. Schneps Media also covers the Long Island and Westchester markets.
Schneps’ combined digital reach will now grow to about 3.5 million unique visitors and 5.5 million page views per month with over 300,000 email newsletter subscribers and 500,000 social media followers.
Schneps plans to retain amNY.com as the digital brand for New York and will soon be launching amNY TV providing episodes of content across multiple digital platforms. The first series will be The World’s Fare featuring the best authentic international restaurants and their chefs in New York City.
Philadelphia is a new market for Schneps Media with METRO having the largest circulation in Philadelphia County.
Schneps Media executive Cliff Luster has been named Group Publisher for the New York and Philadelphia markets with former METRO executives Ed Abrams and Susan Pfeiffer acting as Publishers and Associate Publisher for New York City and Philadelphia respectively. Robert Pozarycki, amNewYork’s current Editor in Chief, will serve in the same role for the combined New York City media.
METRO largely consolidated their Philadelphia newsroom into New York and Schneps Media plans to focus on hiring editorial staff that will be based in the local Philadelphia market for that office.
“I’m very happy that the readers and communities of New York and Philadelphia will get their news from publishers that have been devoted to local news coverage for over 35 years,” said Abrams. “I’m excited to be joining and leading the amNewYork METRO division with a company I competed with and also respected for many years.”
“This is an exciting next step for our entire organization offering a unique opportunity to strengthen our position in the daily newspaper market and increase our readership to over 2.5 million readers in print each week and many more online,” said Schneps Media CEO Joshua Schneps.
“Our expansion to the Philadelphia market is something we look forward to. We will be bringing our business model to this historic City,” said Schneps Media Founder and President Victoria Schneps. METRO Philadelphia is poised to grow tremendously and we look forward to working with the local community.”
Schneps Media is now the publisher and producer of two leading daily newspapers, 33 award-winning community newspapers, 28 magazines and specialty publications, 20 websites and more than 50 annual events throughout New York City, Long Island, Westchester and now Philadelphia.
The company was founded by its President Victoria Schneps with one newspaper in her living room in 1985. As a community activist fighting for the rights of those with disabilities she harnessed her advocacy and passion to make a difference in the community to what is now the largest local media company in New York.
For more information on the Company and details on all of their media outlets visit www.SchnepsMedia.com.
