While Rupert Murdoch fights to take over the Wall Street Journal, he has begun spreading his enormous enterprise even further with local papers. After picking up a slew of Brooklyn and Queens newspapers, the company just acquired two Bronx weeklies. Of course this does not match the reach of the Wall Street Journal, but it counts in the Bronx, and it counts when looking at the end game.
From The New York Times:
The News Corporation, owner of The New York Post, bought two weekly newspapers in the Bronx yesterday, giving it a chain of neighborhood papers throughout three New York City boroughs that it hopes will complement The Post.
(snip)The Bronx Times, which covers the entire borough, and The Bronx Times Reporter, which covers the southeastern neighborhoods, have a combined circulation of about 40,000 copies. Last fall, News Corporation bought The TimesLedger newspaper group in Queens and The Courier Life group in Brooklyn, with 28 weekly papers, 27 of them geared to covering specific neighborhoods.
Next month, News Corporation plans to expand circulation of some of those in the Howard Beach and the Richmond Hill areas of Queens, and to introduce two new weeklies covering Williamsburg and Greenpoint.
News Corp, like many other media conglomerates is always looking to grow bigger and reach readers with a synergistic approach. The advertising is mentioned first because that is just business. Though what the the Times does not cover is the journalism. Locals count on small time reporters to tell them what is going on in their neighborhood, not just what is for sale at the local market. News Corp has a decidedly conservative bent that might not be appealing to readers in the Bronx. It is a shame to see these two small weeklies be sold to Murdoch.;
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