Bethesda Magazine announced Monday that it has acquired Bethesda Now, an online local news service started in 2012.
Steve Hull, editor and publisher of Bethesda Magazine, said that his company will stop publishing Bethesda Now and will merge its content and other assets into Bethesda Beat, the online daily news briefing from Bethesda Magazine.
“By combining the resources of Bethesda Now and Bethesda Beat, we will be able to substantially increase the breadth and depth of our coverage—and the size of our readership,” Hull said. Starting May 6, Bethesda Beat will increase the average number of stories it posts each day from six to eight, he said.
“We’re very proud of our coverage of Bethesda for the past two and a half years,” said Scott Brodbeck, founder of Local News Now LLC, which publishes Bethesda Now. “Selling the site was a hard decision, but it was made easier knowing that we were selling to a locally-owned, independent media company with a long tradition of service to the Bethesda community.”
Added Brodbeck: “This sale will help our company focus our growth and pursue new opportunities, such as our acquisition and coming re-launch of Borderstan, which will cover the Dupont Circle, Logan Circle, U Street and Columbia Heights neighborhoods of Washington, D.C.”
Andrew J. Metcalf, editor of Bethesda Beat, will now be joined by Aaron Kraut, editor of Bethesda Now. “This is the dream team of local reporting,” Hull said. “They know what’s going on in Bethesda and the surrounding towns better than anyone. They both have amazing sources and ability to write quickly and concisely.”
Bethesda Magazine launched Bethesda Beat in April 2014. The news service covers breaking news in Bethesda and the surrounding towns. Stories are posted on BethesdaMagazine.com throughout the day and an e-newsletter is sent out at 11:30 a.m. each weekday. In March, more than 60,000 people read Bethesda Beat. Bethesda Magazine is a bi-monthly magazine that covers the lives and lifestyles of people in the Bethesda area. The magazine was launched in 2004.
Founded in 2010, Local News Now (LNN) is an online publishing company that’s building a sustainable business model for online local news. With offices in Arlington, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., LNN publishes community-focused local news websites, including ARLnow.com (Arlington), HillNow.com (Capitol Hill) and RestonNow.com (Reston). Borderstan, LNN’s newest site, was originally founded as a neighborhood blog by two Dupont Circle residents in 2008. It stopped publishing in 2013, but is expected to re-launch by June as a professionally staffed local news website.
