It's light fare, but an article about a stolen bench appearing on the Brooklyn Paper website Friday was notable for the fact that it was attributed to Thomas Tracy of the Community Newspaper Group, the publisher of the Courier-Life chain of newspaper; as of last month, the two papers share a corporate parent named Rupert Murdoch. The cross-publication was noticed by the ever-vigilant Norman Oder of the Atlantic Yards Report. Like many observers, Oder is wondering whether the fact that The Paper is now owned by News Corp will mean its critical coverage of Bruce Ratner and the Atlantic Yards project will lose some or all of its edge to fall in line with the pro-development stance of its sister publication and the generally pro-business tack of Murdoch's empire. The question may be moot if the prediction of an AYR commenter comes true: "My bet is they will merge under the same masthead/website within 6 months and that there will not be a print edition of one of them within a year."
Brooklyn Paper Begins to Publish Work by Courier [AYR]
