Washington Jewish Week Sold
Life is in a shaky state of affairs at Washington Jewish Week. As of yesterday, the newspaper was sold to WJW Group. The Publisher, Larry Fishbein, is gone, and COO (and former Publisher) Craig Burke is on board. No one could say for certain whether Fishbein had resigned, been fired or was forced out.
Editorial staff learned of the sale on Monday. Debra Rubin, the editor who has worked at the publication for the past 11 years, is uncertain about the ramification of the sale, but sounded cautiously optimistic. “We don’t know yet,” she told FishbowlDC this morning when asked if the sale was favorable or not. “We just learned about it yesterday, so it’s a big change.”
The new owners told Rubin and other members of the editorial staff on Monday that things will largely stay the same. “This is a group [the new owners] of people who are very active in the Jewish community,” Rubin said. “They assured us that it will continue to be a newspaper and not a newsletter and that we should continue to report on Jewish community organizations both good and bad.”
This announcement was posted on the Washington Jewish Week web site on Monday with the byline, “WJW Staff“…
Washington Jewish Week sold
Effective August 2, 2010, the Washington Jewish Week has been acquired by WJW Group, LLC. The acquiring company is owned by David Butler, Allan Fox, Michael Gelman, Stuart Kurlander and Louis Mayberg. All of the owners have been active in the Washington area Jewish community. Craig Burke, a former publisher of the Washington Jewish Week, has been hired to serve as the chief operating officer, and will be responsible for day to day operations of the paper.
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About WJW: Washington Jewish Week has existed in various forms since 1930 and has had a variety of names and ownerships. HarborPoint Media has owned the publication for the past five years.
