• by Val Brickates Kennedy , May 6, 2014

More turbulence in the Boston news market.

The publisher of the Boston Business Journal, Christopher McIntosh, has resigned, effective immediately, the BBJ announced on its website Tuesday. 

McIntosh had served as publisher since 2010. No reason was given for the resignation. A search for a new publisher is already underway, the paper added.

Over the years, the BBJ has established a comfortable niche for itself in the constantly changing Boston media market by focusing on smaller, often privately held companies and start-ups . The paper is part of American City Business Journals, which in turn is owned by Conde Nast's parent company, Advance Publications.

The move comes just weeks after the Boston Globe unveiled a new website called BetaBoston targeted at region's vibrant start-up community, one of the BBJ's core audiences. Since it's launch in early March, BetaBoston has rapidly expanded coverage to encompass many of the Bay State's hottest business sectors, such as tech, biotech, medtech, adtech and edtech.

Adding to the BBJ's woes---BetaBoston was able to lure away the newspaper's prolific tech editor, Kyle Alspach. Longtime BBJ biotech reporter Julie Donnelly has also been a regular BetaBoston contributor.