Philly Weekly, Northeast Times Sold to N.J. Circular Company

Don Russell (aka Joe Sixpack) is the new editor-in-chief of a group of publications that includes Philadelphia Weekly, the Northeast Times and the South Philly Review.

A company that drops circulars on Philadelphia-area doorsteps just got a bit bigger.

Donnelly Distribution, a Pennsauken-based circular distribution company that was previously a minority owner of the newspaper group, announced today it had acquired Broad Street Media from former CEO Darwin Oordt and other owners. Broad Street Media owns Philadelphia Weekly, the Northeast Times, South Philly Review as well as other smaller newspapers.

Don Russell, the longtime Daily News scribe who worked at the paper for years and penned the Joe Sixpack beer column, has been named the editor-in-chief of Broad Street Media. Russell announced he was moving the column to the Broad Street Media papers earlier this month.

“I’m a true believer in the value of community newspapers, and it’s my aim to support journalistic excellence at all of these publications,” Donnelly Distribution president Richard Donnelly said. “We have already developed exciting plans for their future.”

Broad Street Media, which was founded in 2010, acquired PW and the Review early last year. It acquired the rights to City Paper and shut it down in September. Donnelly Distribution says it is one of “the area’s largest distribution companies reaching nearly 900,000 homes every week.” It distributes circulars and a variety of other direct-distribution ads to homes across the region, and says its new newspapers have a combined circulation north of half a million. Broad Street Media employs about 100 people.

“Philadelphia needs an alternative, community-based journalistic voice more than ever,” Russell said in a release from the company. “I’m excited to work with Rich to build all of Broad Street Media’s publications, and to give the city’s neighborhoods and suburbs the newspapers they deserve.”

Donnelly announced it will begin distributing PW to additional spots in East Falls, Manayunk, Roxborough, Fishtown and Northern Liberties.

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