State rep, civics, publisher would replace shut Philly-area weeklies

A state representative, an independent Bucks County weekly and a Mt. Airy civic group are among those working on plans to replace weekly newspapers closed by Yardley-based Journal Register Co. recently.

State Rep. Mark Cohen, D-Phila, represents some neighborhoods that lost coverage when the Olney Times, News Gleaner and Northeast Breeze closed last year. He's approached community groups about starting "Your Community Newspaper," which Cohen calls a "non-profit, non-political" free weekly "that will be run more like a community organization than a traditional business. I think if we rethink the weeklies and we do the organization that's necessary, we can run papers that will at least break even."

Cohen said he hoped the papers would be distributed at churches, stores and community groups, and would also cover neighborhood institutions like Einstein Hospital and LaSalle University. Asked if he expected those institutions, or the State of Pennsylvania, will advertise in or subsidize Your Community News, Cohen said, "It is possible."

Cohen has also reached out to community groups in Northwest Philadelphia, where Journal Register's West Oak Lane Leader, Mt. Airy Times Express and Germantown Courier folded this winter. "The demise of the Times Express and the Courier is not only a threat to our community, but is particularly poignant with those of us associated with East and West Mt. Airy Neighbors. The Mt. Airy Express (the name was a mischievous dig at the Chestnut Hill Local!) was founded by the two community organizations in 1981," the Neighbors noted in a recent newsletter article.

According to West Mount Airy Neighbors executive director Laura Morris Siena, the group has talked to Rep. Cohen and to potential investors "to see if a print paper can be restored to our community."

Up in Lahaska, the independent, six-year-old Bucks County Herald has been receiving news items that used to go to the Quakertown Free Press, the New Hope Gazette and the Doylestown Patriot before Journal Register closed them this winter. The Herald wants to cover those areas, but isn't sure its advertising base is large enough to support more pages or an expanded press run beyond the current 25,000, says editor Bridget Wingert, a former New Hope Gazette editor. Her husband, Joseph, publishes the Herald.

Journal Register owns the Delaware County Daily Times and six other suburban dailies that compete with the Inquirer. Besides the neighborhoods listed above, Journal Register has also shut weeklies covering Conshohocken, Coatesville, Downingtown, Lafayette Hill, Parkesburg, Plymouth Meeting, and other Pennsylvania communities in recent weeks.