In May, Manhattan Media, publishers of the New York Press, City Hall, and other local New York papers, acquired 02138 and announced plans to reposition the Harvard lifestyle magazine.

Today, another release touts several hires at the magazine. George Lois, creator of Esquire's most iconic magazine covers of the 1960s and Pentagram's Luke Hayman have been tapped to redesign the magazine. Jamie Hooper, who launched Giant magazine in 2004, will be 02138's new publisher. And David Blum, the editorial director of Manhattan Media and the editor in chief of the New York Press, will become editor-in-chief of 02138 when it resumes printing with its December/January issue.  read more »

New York Press editor David Blum explained his decision to fire real estate publicist Kelly Kreth from her job as the weekly paper's sex columnist.

"It was a column that was intended to be and was a specific narrative of her experience, but ultimately it wasn't to my taste," Mr. Blum said over the phone.

"I don't want to try to characterize them," he answered of whether the columns were too explicit. "They speak for themselves."  read more »

Kelly Kreth, the real estate publicist-cum-sex columnist who was infamously fired from her marketing job two years ago for writing a personal blog, was sacked from the New York Press over the weekend after only four months on the job.

New York Press editor David Blum called Ms. Kreth on Saturday to tell her he “was no longer comfortable with a sex column and wanted more of a relationship theme,” she told The Observer.  read more »

The Observer's intrepid political reporter Azi Paybarah made this amusing discovery this morning: City Hall News and New York Press, owned by the same company, carried the same Daniel Doctoroff covery story but under a different headline, differnet packaging, a few different edits, and a slightly different byline.  read more »

The New York Press wants to redesign its web site. David Blum, the paper's editor, sent a letter to the Columbia j-school list serv looking for freelance web designers. In a conversation with Media Mob, he said couldn't quite recall when the web site last had a redesign, but agreed that it badly needs one (and hey! speaking of: did you notice things have changed around here too?).

Although he says it ain’t so, Tony Ortega appears to be playing tricks again with a recent cover promoting a story about the health risks of WTC rescue workers.  read more »

Adult ads have come under fire lately. So The Village Voice's Tony Ortega decided “the best response from the newsroom was to poke some fun at ourselves.”  read more »

“This was a mild stunt, not a heavy editorial,” he said.  read more »

Yesterday, the weekly New York Press was sold to Manhattan Media. The new owner spoke today with The Observer about layoffs, a sizeable drop in circulation, a forthcoming Brooklyn edition, and the decision to cut out adult advertisements.  read more »