The owners of Community News Service in Lawrenceville and U.S. 1 Publishing Co. in Princeton — parent company of the WW-P News — have merged to create a single company publishing 10 newspapers with a combined circulation of more than 160,000 copies in Mercer County and central New Jersey.
Jamie Griswold and Tom Valeri, co-publishers of Community News Service, and Richard K. Rein, founding editor and publisher of U.S. 1 and the News, share ownership of the new company, Community News Service LLC. Rein will serve as editorial director of the new company, and will continue as editor of the weekly U.S. 1 and the bi-weekly West Windsor-Plainsboro paper. Griswold and Valeri will be co-publishers of the combined company, which also includes eight monthly papers serving Hamilton, Ewing, Trenton, Lawrence, Robbinsville, Hopewell, Princeton, and Bordentown.
“I was a reporter and writer who found myself suddenly immersed in the business of journalism 27 years ago when I founded U.S. 1,” says Rein, who previously worked for Time magazine and as a freelancer for People, New Jersey Monthly, and many other publications. “Jamie Griswold and Tom Valeri are business people who got involved in community journalism. The merger brings new strength to both sides.”
“Another attractive part of the merger was that we had virtually no overlap in circulation or advertisers,” says Valeri. “We also feel strongly that each of our newspapers should have its own community identity, and U.S. 1 followed that approach when it started its West Windsor-Plainsboro paper in 2000.” All three owners are longtime residents of Mercer County.
The new company, with a total of 21 employees, will continue to operate at its present locations. The monthly publications will be edited at 15 Princess Road, Suite K, Lawrenceville, under the direction of managing editor Joe Emanski. The non-monthly publications, currently U.S. 1 and the WW-P News, will be edited at 12 Roszel Road, Suite C-205, in West Windsor. For more information contact Griswold or Valeri at 609-396-1511, or Rein at 609-243-9119.
