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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Sun Community Papers Suspend Publishing Again

The Sun Community Newspapers chain will not publish in August, the second time this year publication has been suspended. The three-newspaper chain publishes free weeklies serving Studio City, Sherman Oaks and Encino. “Sun Community Newspapers will be on hiatus for the month of August exploring options that will allow us to continue to bring our fiercely local publications free to the community every week,” said a recorded message at the newspaper offices in Studio City. Owner Judith Proffer would not elaborate about the message in an e-mail response for an interview. The Studio City paper started in 2002 and was followed by the Sherman Oaks paper in early 2004. The Encino paper was the last in the chain. The papers have a combined circulation of about 50,000 according to the Sun website. Jack McGrath, owner of a Studio City public relations firm, said he was not surprised that the Sun stopped publication for a month because it takes a lot of work to make newspapers successful. Small businesses advertising in the papers will be hurt because they had used the Sun as a way to get market share, McGrath said. In the bigger picture, not having a local paper was a loss to the community as a whole because the Sun was good about advertising school fundraisers and reporting news that larger dailies did not cover. “It keeps you together and gives a sense of being,” McGrath said. Earlier in the year, the newspaper group took a one-week hiatus during a re-organization following the departure of publisher and co-founder Jim Kaplan and staffing cuts in the editorial and business departments. Kelly Mayfield was promoted from associate publisher to publisher, and Karen Young was promoted from managing editor to editor.

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