Joseph Barry, the former majority owner of the Hudson Reporter newspaper chain, has sold his share to longtime partners Lucha Malato and David Unger. The sale, which had been in the works since June, was completed Dec. 15. Barry, who owns Hoboken-based Applied Housing, a real estate development company that has built market-rate and subsidized housing in Hudson County since 1970, founded the chain in 1983. Barry said that he sold the chain because he has had no time to devote to it due to his real estate projects. Malato, who became the paper’s general manager shortly after its founding in 1983, has been a partner since 1984. Unger joined the chain as the advertising director in 1985 and became a partner later that year. The two now share ownership. “We don’t plan any dramatic changes,” Unger said last week. “The newspapers are always evolving, growing with the communities. We’ll continue that growth.” The chain includes newspapers in seven communities – The Hoboken Reporter, The Jersey City Reporter, The Secaucus Reporter, The Weehawken Reporter, The North Bergen Reporter, The West New York Reporter, The Union City Reporter – and a weekly arts and entertainment paper, the Current. The group also publishes Phone Hoboken, a telephone directory; PhoneMed, a directory of medical professionals; and an outlet guide called the Secaucus Guidebook. In addition, the company has published the state’s only directory of horse-related products and services, All About Horses, each year since 1993. Grew with cities Barry started the newspaper group at the start of a real estate boom because, he said, “Hoboken was becoming an exciting town, and I felt it needed a real newspaper. The biggest thrill was when people started taking it seriously, when it started to become the real newspaper of Hoboken. It took three, four, five years.” At first, Barry only published one newspaper: The Hoboken Reporter. About a month after its first issue, he began negotiations with David Cangi to buy Cangi’s competing chain, the West New Yorker newspapers, including a popular paper called the Hoboken Pictorial. Barry dissolved the chain and started the Hudson Reporter. Three former Pictorial staffers still work for the Reporter: Senior graphic artist Pat Spina, and typesetters Joyce Laterra and Dorothy McGuire. In the 1980s, Barry was heavily involved with the paper’s production, often leaving his Applied Housing office at First and Hudson streets in Hoboken and rounding the corner to spend time in the small newspaper office at 55 First St. At the time, reporters typed the stories on manual typewriters and printed them out on Compugraphic typesetters. “We all worked in one room,” Barry said, “and it would take us a whole week to put out one Hoboken Reporter.” Barry often contributed editorials both on local politics and national issues. After a year on First Street, the newspaper moved to 1321 Washington St., an Applied building. In 1987, the popularity of the Hoboken Reporter’s letters page spawned a book, Yuppies Invade My House at Dinnertime. Barry co-edited the book, which chronicled the growing pains the mile-square city experienced when droves of young commuters began to live here. In 1995, Barry bought a former bank building across the street at 1400 Washington St., and the Reporter staff moved in. In recent years, Barry’s involvement in the newspapers waned and his visits became rare, as a real estate revival made development top priority. Barry is currently involved with the proposed redevelopment of Asbury Park, and has projects in Morristown, Trenton, New Brunswick, and Long Branch. “What’s happened for the last few years,” Barry said, “is that because of the increase in the real estate business, I have not been able to spend the time on the newspaper I would have liked. One of the reasons I had time to start the paper was that there was a real estate recession from 1981 to 1982. But for the last four or five years, I have not really been able to participate in the paper.” Barry said, “Dave and Lucha have actually run the paper for years, with only oversight by me, so I think that no one will see any difference in the way the paper is run. They are wonderful, ethical people, and that is one of the most important criteria for any news organization. They care a lot about the papers.” Internet in future As the newspaper group has grown, it has also become active in the communities it has served, co-sponsoring artist studio tours, festivals, and contests. The papers have also been a training ground for dedicated writers, launching reporters who are now at the New York Times and other daily newspapers and national magazines. They have also been edited by writers who were successful in other avenues of publishing, including novelist Mark Leyner, who edited the Hoboken paper in 1984. The days of the manual typewriter are long gone at the Reporter, and Malato said that the newspapers will be available on the Internet at www.hudsonreporter.com within the next few months. Currently, the classifieds may be obtained at that address. Malato also said the chain may expand in the future. She said each newspaper in the group will always dedicate itself to local news. “People realize we’ve made a commitment to the communities we serve, and we’ve tried to get more of our staff into the communities,” Malato said. “We started in Hoboken printing 12,000 papers, and now we have eight papers with almost 100,000 [circulation]. With each paper we’ve started, we’ve been committed to the communities, making an effort to bring public attention to the problems, questions and concerns in the towns.” “We’re an exceedingly well-read group of local newspapers, and the source of most local news for the communities we serve,” Unger said. “We understand that’s a big responsibility, and we take it very seriously.” The phone numbers, e-mail and mailing addresses for Malato, Unger and the rest of the staff are listed on the letters page. “The newspapers are always evolving, growing with the communities. We’ll continue that growth.” – Co-Publisher David Unger