Congressman Buys Back NY Newspaper

Posted Friday, November 15, 2002 12:00 am

By: Lucia Moses A congressman from Queens, N.Y., who helped found a local weekly newspaper, is back as one of its owners.

Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Jamaica Estates); Michael Schenkler, the paper's longtime publisher; and other investors bought the 146,000-distribution Queens Tribune back from News Communications, which owns The Hill, a Washington, D.C., political weekly, and Dan's Papers in the Hamptons. Ackerman and Schenkler had sold the paper to News Communications in 1989.

Schenkler, a longtime supporter and friend of Ackerman, said the congressman will continue to be "fair game" in the paper known for advocacy journalism. He admitted that balancing friendship and journalism isn't easy: "He happens to be one of my oldest friends, and it's real hard as a journalist to cover friends."

The deal includes the Press of Southeast Queens, a black-interest weekly. Its terms were not disclosed.

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Congressman Buys Back NY Newspaper

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