News Corp announced today an agreement to sell its Community Newspaper Group (CNG), which owns and manages The Bronx Times Reporter, to Les and Jennifer Goodstein for an amount undisclosed at this time.
(l-r)Les and Jennifer Goodstein,with Irena Laks. Photo c/o The Hampton Sheet
CNG, headquartered in Brooklyn, is a network of The Bronx Times and 10 other community newspapers and web sites, including Caribbean Life, The Brooklyn Paper, Bay News and Bay Ridge Courier, Bayside Times and TimesLedger. CNG also publishes specialty magazines, including Family magazines, the Wedding Guide and Sweet Sixteen Magazine. CNG distributes over 235,000 newspapers each week in Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx and Manhattan. The Bronx Times was formerly owned by John Colazzi, a landlord and cafe owner in Throggs Neck, who was publisher since the paper’s first days. He founded the paper with current Assemblyman Michael Benedetto in the early 80s. An anonymous source has stated the paper was sold to Newscorp in 2007 for an amount in the range of $3.5- 4 million.
“This sale, like our divestiture of the Dow Jones Local Media Group, helps us reshape the News Corp portfolio as we achieve greater globalization and digitization of our businesses with an eye towards long-term growth,” said Robert Thomson, Chief Executive of News Corp. “We’re confident that these newspapers and magazines will prosper under the leadership of Les and Jennifer Goodstein.”
“Besides my love of newspapers, it was an honor to complete this transaction with News Corp. I look forward to the continued success of the Community Newspaper Group,” said Les Goodstein. “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.”
Capital NY reported today on the moves ahead of the day, including one affecting the Bronx which we reported on last week:
“Layoffs hit CNG less than two weeks ago ahead of the sale. The employees who were let go included Bronx Times editor Bob Kappstatter, Brooklyn Paper publisher Celia Weintrob and CNG marketing vice president James Spielman.”
The Goodsteins also own NYC CommunityMedia, publisher of The Villager, Downtown Express, Gay City News, East Villager News and Chelsea Now. Les Goodstein is a former News Corp executive who ran CNG between 2006 and 2013.
News Corp sold the Dow Jones Local Media Group, which operated 33 publications, to an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group LLC last September.
Financial terms of the agreement, which is expected to close next week, were not disclosed. News Corp launched its CNG business in 2006.
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