August 19, 2016
The man trying to boost the circulation of Philadelphia Weekly has taken over several New Jersey newspapers.
Richard Donnelly's Newspaper Media Group, which acquired Broad Street Media and its affiliates in July, announced Thursday the company's scooped up the Haddonfield-based The Sun Newspapers from Elauwit Media.
The Sun runs nine papers throughout the state, including in Cherry Hill and Marlton.
“This transaction cements us further in key communities in New Jersey, and enhances our team with a high-quality editorial component," Donnelly said in a release.
The move is the latest development in a slew of recent shakeups at several hyper local and weekly papers.
Last year, Metro announced it had sold beloved Philly alt-weekly City Paper to Broad Street Media, which owns Philadelphia Weekly, the Northeast Times, the South Philly Review and the Star Newspaper (Riverwards). City Paper was subsequently shut down in October.
Donnelley went ahead and acquired Broad Street Media, and then announced he was re-adding a news division to Philadelphia Weekly, which has moved toward covering solely culture and entertainment in recent years.
He also said he planned to add circulation and more pages to the paper. Don Russell, a former Daily News beer columnist (aka "Joe Sixpack"), was pegged to head the re-launched Broad Street Media.
Elauwit Media currently employs more than 100 people in South Jersey. Whether drastic changes would be made to the nine papers was not immediately announced.
