The New York Observer

The New York Observer

44th Street office
Type Weekly newspaper
Format Tabloid[1]
Owner(s) New York Observer, LLC
Founder(s) Arthur L. Carter
Publisher Jared Kushner
Editor Ken Kurson[2]
Founded 1987
Headquarters 321 West 44th Street,
New York, NY, 10010
ISSN 1052–2948
Website observer.com

The New York Observer is a weekly newspaper first published in New York City on September 22, 1987, by Arthur L. Carter, a former investment banker with publishing interests. The Observer focuses on the city's culture, real estate, media, politics and the entertainment and publishing industries. Since July 2006 the paper has been owned and published by the American real-estate figure Jared Kushner. The paper has its headquarters at 321 West 44th Street in Manhattan, New York City.

Published every Wednesday, the newspaper's editorial team is led by Ken Kurson with other writers and editors including Rex Reed, Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke, Will Bredderman, Jill Jorgensen, Ross Barkan, Drew Grant, James Jorden, Joshua David Stein, M.H. Miller, Kim Velsey, Matthew Kassel, Christopher Pomorski, Faye Penn and Ben Ryder Howe.[2]

Previous writers include Joe Conason, Doree Shafrir, Hilton Kramer, Andrew Sarris, Richard Brookhiser, Michael Tomasky, John Heilpern, Robert Gottlieb, Foster Kamer, Nicholas von Hoffman and Steve Kornacki.

The paper is perhaps best known for publishing Candace Bushnell's column on Manhattan's social life on which the television series Sex and the City was based. It is visually distinctive because of its salmon-colored pages and sketch illustrations, in the style of La Gazzetta dello Sport. Henry Rollins once described it as "the curiously pink newspaper." The paper switched to a more conventional colored newsprint in 2014.[1]

The fourth and longest serving editor for the newspaper, Peter Kaplan left the newspaper on July 1, 2009. Interim editor Tom McGeveran was replaced by Kyle Pope in 2009.[3] Elizabeth Spiers served as editor from 2011 to 2012, followed by interim editor Aaron Gell. In January 2013, publisher Jared Kushner named Ken Kurson, a political consultant, journalist, and author, as the Observer's next editor.[4]

The New York Observer asserts to advertisers that it delivers Manhattan’s most affluent, educated and influential consumers, with the average net worth of its readership exceeding $1.7 million and 96% of readers being college graduates. It has a paid circulation of 51,000. The Observer operates several blogs: Betabeat, Commercial Observer and PolitickerNJ as well as the culture, media, and real estate blogs on Observer.com. Observer Media also manages several publications such as YUE Magazine and the Mortgage Observer.

Ownership

The publisher and original owner, Arthur Carter, has had other publishing interests, including the Litchfield County Times. At one time, he was a part-owner in The East Hampton Star. Carter received a B.A. in French literature from Brown University and an M.B.A. in Finance from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He spent 25 years in investment banking until 1981, when he founded the Litchfield County Times in New Milford, Connecticut. He owned it for twenty years until selling to Journal Register Company, later also selling his 50-percent interest in The East Hampton Star in 2003. He has been an adjunct professor of philosophy and journalism at New York University and is a trustee. Despite his "registered opportunist" political beliefs, from 1985 to 1995 he owned The Nation.

In July 2006, Jared Kushner, a 25-year-old law student and son of a wealthy New Jersey developer, Charles Kushner, purchased the paper for just under $10 million. In April 2007 Bob Sommer became president.[5] In December 2011, The New York Post reported that Observer Media had been profitable for the first time.[6]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Pompeo, Joe (March 18, 2014). Observer C.E.O. touts gains ahead of relaunch. Capital New York. Retrieved February 27, 2015.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "The New York Observer Masthead'". New York Observer. Retrieved 2013-01-24.
  3. ↑ Neyfakh, Leon (November 5, 2009). "Kyle Pope Is the Next Editor of The Observer". New York Observer. Retrieved 2010-03-05.
  4. ↑ Carr, David (January 4, 2013). "New York Observer Hits Reset Again, Names Ken Kurson New Editor". The New York Times. Retrieved 2013-01-14.
  5. ↑ Seelye, Katharine Q. (July 31, 2006). "Developer's Son Acquires The New York Observer". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-03-05.
  6. ↑ Kelly, Keith J. (December 29, 2011). "Turcotte takes a hike at freebie AM New York". New York Post.

External links