the new york observer , the sharp-tongued chronicler of new york city<u+2019>s power elite owned by donald j. trump <u+2019>s son-in-law, jared kushner, is ceasing its print edition, just shy of its 30th year as a weekly paper. the issue printed this last wednesday was the paper<u+2019>s last, joseph meyer, chairman and chief executive of observer media, the paper<u+2019>s parent company, said in an interview on friday. the decision will eliminate the use of new york in the paper<u+2019>s title <u+2014> its website is observer.com <u+2014> and signals an end of an era when the observer served as a fixture of manhattan reporting and a training ground for scores of journalists now in senior positions in the media world. it also comes as newspaper coverage of new york city is being trimmed. the wall street journal will publish its final greater new york section on saturday, a result of widespread cuts at the paper. the daily news, whose staff has already shrunk, announced a new round of layoffs this week. the new york times is rethinking its own metro coverage as the paper seeks to lure global audiences. mr. meyer, in the interview, said the decision to close the observer<u+2019>s print edition was a natural outgrowth of the paper<u+2019>s shift toward a national audience and the decline in print advertising that has afflicted the industry. mr. meyer, who is mr. kushner<u+2019>s brother-in-law, said the decision had been two years in the making and was not related to mr. trump<u+2019>s election this week. mr. kushner, who is aiding mr. trump<u+2019>s presidential transition, was not available to comment. now focused on real estate coverage and provocative opinion, the observer<u+2019>s heyday came during the 15-year tenure of its former editor, peter w. kaplan, whose tutelage in detail-rich reporting and arch prose became a rite of passage for a generation of prominent newspaper and magazine journalists. mr. kaplan died in 2013. the publication was founded in 1987 by the banker arthur l. carter. its early editors included graydon carter, now the editor of vanity fair, and susan morrison, now the articles editor of the new yorker. under mr. kaplan, the newspaper originated the <u+201c> sex and the city <u+201d> column by candace bushnell that later became a hit television series. mr. meyer said the observer<u+2019>s coverage of new york city politics and culture would continue, adding that the paper had open positions for new reporters and editors. mr. meyer said that no journalists would be laid off as part of the change to all digital. but several freelance writers at the newspaper were dismissed on friday, along with one of the paper<u+2019>s senior-most editors. staff members said that several positions, vacated by layoffs or resignations, had remained unfilled. observer.com received 5.6 million unique visitors in september, nearly twice its audience from the year before, according to statistics from comscore. mr. meyer declined to disclose print circulation figures. mr. kushner<u+2019>s purchase of the observer in 2006, when he was 25, created tension between him and the paper<u+2019>s journalists, some of whom later accused mr. kushner of interfering in coverage. but ken kurson, the observer<u+2019>s current editor, wrote on his facebook page on friday that he welcomed the move to digital, citing a rise in online readership and advertising. <u+201c>this has been a week of incredible tumult, for our country, and now for this small business,<u+201d> mr. kurson, who is close to mr. kushner, wrote in a post. <u+201c>who knows what the future holds, for me or for the usa or for observer.<u+201d> <u+201c>but i can tell you this much for sure,<u+201d> mr. kurson added. <u+201c>observer<u+2019>s future is brighter than it<u+2019>s ever been.<u+201d> correction: november 11, 2016 an earlier version of this article misstated the number of years the new york observer has operated. the paper will cease its print edition just shy of its 30th year as a weekly paper, not its 20th year. sapna maheshwari contributed reporting. a version of this article appears in print on november 12, 2016, on page b6 of the new york edition with the headline: observer is ending its edition for print. order reprints | today's paper | subscribe
new york observer ending print edition
michael m. grynbaum