May 18, 2008
CRAIN'S New York Business
Manhattan Media looks north, south
While most print publishers are licking their wounds, Manhattan Media is expanding its footprint – again. Just days after buying 02138, a magazine for Harvard alumni, from Atlantic Media, the publisher of New York freebies Avenue, West Side Spirit and New York Press went to Miami to buy Latin Trade, a trilingual title for the business community. "We see Miami as the sixth borough," says President Tom Allon.
Latin Trade has a monthly circulation of 87,000 copies, and is distributed across Latin America and parts of the United States. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The freebie will be part of anew division, Miami Media. An Ivy League Media division built around 02138 will include half a dozen alumni-oriented titles, as well as companion Web sites and events.
"We feel we have the bandwidth to build both these things out," Mr. Allon says.

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May 12, 2008
The New York Times
Planning a Web Site, Publisher Buys a Harvard Alumni Magazine
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
A small New York publisher on Friday bought 02138, a magazine for Harvard alumni, with visions of expanding it into social networking and event sponsorship, and then duplicating the operation for each Ivy League school.
Manhattan Media bought 02138 from Atlantic Media, publisher of The Atlantic and National Journal, and the magazine’s young founders, Bom Kim and Daniel Loss, who held a minority stake. The price was not disclosed.
The deal was something of a surprise; Manhattan Media’s involvement had been kept quiet, and published reports said in April that Sandow Media, publisher of Worth magazine, was on the verge of buying 02138, which is named for Harvard’s ZIP code.
Mr. Kim will stay as publisher. Tom Allon, president and chief executive of Manhattan Media, said he hoped the executive editor, Richard Bradley, would also stay. The magazine will go from four issues a year to six, he said.
We plan to launch a companion Web site that’s a social networking Web site for Harvard alumni, and sponsor a series of events, alumni events, around the 02138 brand,” he said. “We think this is a sort of new paradigm in publishing. I think people do share common interests when they’re alumni of a university.”
Over the next few years, Mr. Allon said, “Our plan is that this is the first of what will become eight Ivy League magazines, sites and events companies,” one each for Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Penn, Princeton and Yale. Though he is an alumnus of Cornell and Columbia, Mr. Allon said the next project would probably be Yale or Princeton.
The Harvard magazine first appeared in 2006, offering articles on alumni and staff, and campus goings-on. It publishes an annual Harvard 100, a ranking of the university’s most influential alumni: last year, its top five, in order, were Al Gore, President Bush, Justice Anthony Kennedy, Senator Barack Obama and Bill Gates. Mr. Allon said he planned to publish similar rankings for each Ivy League school.
The magazine, mailed free to about 100,000 Harvard alumni, is supported by ads, and the other magazines would follow that lead. “Paid circulation, I think, is a dying model,” he said.
Manhattan Media owns 10 publications, including Avenue magazine, New York Press and several other local weekly newspapers in Manhattan, and two monthlies on New York politics: City Hall and The Capitol.
The company is owned by Mr. Allon and Isis Venture Partners.

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February 4, 2008
Gawker
NEW YORK, 10:32 AM, MON FEB 4
'NYPost' Swipes 'NYPress' Item On Phony Knicks Fans
Have you seen those commercials starring real-life Knicks fans going on about how much they love their team? The New York Press called foul on the ads this week, reporting the team had hired actors to play the roles. Not exactly a shocker, how many authentic Knicks fans could there possibly be these days? The New York Post was outraged enough to run a double bylined piece today, albeit without crediting the Press story, which occasionally happens after an item has languished for a couple of days. Though, um, we wondered how the Post came across the item—can you even get the Press in Midtown?
Turns out the piece was passed on by the Press to Page Six's Richard Johnson, who "was eager to do an item," Press editor David Blum told us. Aww, offering publicity to a struggling alt-weekly, how nice! As if. The story was bumped up to a news feature by the Post and then turned into a scoop on page three. "We're sorry they couldn't wait one more day and make it a Wall Street Journal page one exclusive," Blum told us.

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February 1, 2008
'60 MINS.' ROBBERY
STAHL PENTHOUSE IS HIT FOR 100G
By TIM PERONE, PHILIP MESSING and LARRY CELONA
February 1, 2008 -- A burglar posing as a construction worker broke into "60 Minutes" reporter Lesley Stahl's Upper West Side penthouse and carted off more than $100,000 worth of jewelry and electronics, police said.
The brazen bandit stole several diamond watches, a pearl necklace, earrings, and gold and silver necklaces in the heist last Friday, cops said.
In addition, a laptop computer was filched from the CBS star's 15th-floor apartment, which overlooks Central Park in the West 70s.
Stahl - a former White House correspondent who has worked on the long-running TV-magazine show since 1991 - was not home at the time of the break-in.
She did not return calls for comment and a "60 Minutes" representative declined to comment.
The incident, which was first reported in the West Side Spirit, occurred at around 11 a.m.
The thief gained access to the building by pretending to be a construction worker fixing the landmark building.

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January 30, 2008
Lesley Stahl's NYC Apartment Burgled
The New York Press reports that the penthouse apartment of 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl was "ransacked" last Friday.
A thief "made off with, among other things, a Bulova watch commemorating the CBS reporter's weekly series, 60 Minutes," the NYPress' sister publication West Side Spirit reports. "In minutes, the thief snatched the Bulova, another diamond watch, a ruby and gold antique bracelet, a string of pearls and a diamond broach," the paper reports.
Stahl was not home at the time, but a housekeeper was. With work being done on her Upper West Side building, it is believed a person posing as a contractor made his way into the unit, and then made off with the goods.

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January 27, 2008
Upper East Side
For a Housing Group, a Familiar Client
By GREGORY BEYER
LAST May, after visiting a friend in the hospital, Edgardo Alfaro returned to learn that his fourth-floor studio apartment on Lexington Avenue near 63rd Street had caught fire. Mr. Alfaro, a 69-year-old Peruvian immigrant, lost everything in the blaze.
Exactly what caused the fire, and who was to blame, were in dispute, but in any event Mr. Alfaro was soon homeless. Desperate, he walked a block south to Eviction Intervention Services, a housing advocacy agency located in Lexington United Methodist Church. Six months later, he moved back into a rent-controlled studio apartment in his old building.
“If I didn’t go to court with them,” a grateful Mr. Alfaro said recently, “I would still be homeless.”
Now, however, Eviction Intervention Services finds itself in the same predicament as Mr. Alfaro was. Since 1984, the group has rented a large room in the church, on East 62nd Street. But according to the Rev. Elizabeth Perry, the pastor, the building will be demolished this spring and replaced by a new one containing apartments producing revenue that will help pay for improved worship space.
As a result, the group must leave by March 1. The agency’s 16 employees, who include four lawyers, are experiencing what Audrey Tannen, the executive director, called “the real terror, the problem of not being able to hold onto what you have already.”
The agency’s impending eviction was reported in Our Town East Side, a weekly newspaper.

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December 5, 2007
After 46 years on job, man is crowned Upper East Side's best doorman
BY MELISSA GRACE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, December 5th 2007, 4:00 AM
Upper East Side doorman Steven Keschl has been voted the neighborhood's best doorman - and after an amazing 46 years on the job, it's well-deserved.
At 81, the big-hearted Hungarian native still happily greets residents, hails cabs and carries luggage on a daily basis.
"Good afternoon, my friends," a spry Keschl cooed as residents walked into 460 E. 79th St., where he has worked since 1961.
"There isn't another doorman like Steve, and we're keeping him," gushed apartment owner Rena Fafalios. "The building would close if he left."
"He's part of the family here," agreed resident Argyro Pantazopoulos, 80, as Keschl, dressed in his crisp green uniform, escorted her to a taxi.
Even on the upper East Side, famed for its well-tailored and efficient doormen, Keschl's devotion to the job is legendary: He has never missed a day of work.
"Our kids, and so many others who grew up with him, like to come back and say hi," said Peter Moss, a retired management consultant.
The secret to Keschl's success?
"I love people and people love me," said Keschl. "I was born like this - I can't help it."
Besides that, "He always knows what is going on," said building resident Stuart Schenendorf.
By delivering packages promptly and responding to residents' concerns, Keschl has earned his apartment owners' respect.
"These are important things when you rely on someone," said Schenendorf, 51.
A grandfather of four who lives in the Bronx, Keschl brings a homey touch to the building.
He met his wife, Elizabeth, at work the year he started. She was a young nanny and they both spoke German.
Today, Elizabeth Keschl still bakes apple pies for building residents and staff. Keschl, an avid gardener, brings summer vegetables to his employers.
Keschl was voted Best East Side Doorman in the first Building Service Awards, a competition held over the summer.
Of the more than 50 doormen nominated, Keschl stood out to the judges because of the years he has devoted to the building and the "strong affection" for him expressed in nominating letters, said Matt Nerzig, a spokesman for Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union.
The competition was put on by building management companies, the union and Manhattan Media, a consortium of neighborhood newspapers.
As he has gotten older, Keschl said his building's management has offered him a chair to sit in the lobby - something he has refused to accept.
"It doesn't look good," Keschl said.

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October 26, 2007
SWELLING PORTFOLIO
MAG'S ADS ARE GAINING WHILE EDITORIAL IS WANING
Having faith
Some entrepreneurs still have faith in magazines, despite the gloomy assessments.
Here's a rundown on three publications that have launched or are about to launch in the weeks ahead.
* Manhattan Media, the folks who in August purchased New York Press and last year launched City Hall, are next month introducing The Capitol, a new monthly newspaper covering the Albany political scene from Gov. Spitzer on down.
It's part of a strategy by Tom Allon, the CEO of Manhattan Media, to keep political publications profitable - and local.
"The model is politics, policy and personalities," said Allon. "It's a good combination of public policy and bills that are in the Legislature and the people who are in government."
The new newspaper will be modeled after City Hall, a paper that Manhattan Media launched last year to cover city politics. City Hall was modeled after the popular D.C. political weekly, The Hill, where Allon cut his teeth.
Allon's already skimping on the cost of an editor. Edward-Isaac Dovere, who is already editing City Hall, will be the editor of The Capitol, which will have a staff of four or five full-time reporters and editors.

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