• New York Observer, Wednesday, March 11, 2009 9:31 AM

A 31-year-old independent newspaper, The Brooklyn Paper, has been purchased by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. The new owners "don't want the product to change," says the paper's longtime editor Gersh Kuntzman. A sale price was not disclosed.

In 2006, Murdoch purchased a rival group of papers, The Courier-Life chain, which publishes 12 papers in Brooklyn. At the time, some industry pundits said the chain might help the sales staff at News Corp's New York Post upsell ads from the local papers to the Post and offer Post advertisers more reach via the small papers.

Last year, when the press speculated that The Brooklyn Paper was in financial trouble and might change hands, Kuntzman was dismissive. "Brooklyn needs us too much right now, what with local papers being snapped up by billionaire moguls who have no interest in local news except maximizing classified ad sales," he said. "Has Rupert Murdoch even been to Brooklyn? His reporters don't know the territory, either."

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