Chesapeake Bay Media to Acquire Bay Weekly Newspaper

There’s a new way to get the Bay Bulletin news we bring you from around the Chesapeake region.

Bay Bulletin’s owner, Chesapeake Bay Media LLC, announced Tuesday it agreed to take ownership of Bay Weekly, a freely picked up newsprint paper found in Anne Arundel and Calvert County, Maryland businesses for the last 26 years.

In late September, Bay Weekly announced that it planned to close unless new ownership could be established. That’s where Chesapeake Bay Media, which publishes Bay Bulletin, Chesapeake Bay Magazine, and several specialty destination, travel, and maritime publications, stepped in.

As of January, Bay Weekly will operate in shared office space with its new parent company and share content with Bay Bulletin. The paper will continue publishing with the same mission and its existing staff. Supported by local, small businesses, it will offer southern Marylanders both hyperlocal and regional Chesapeake Bay coverage.

“This newspaper strengthens our media platform,” said John Martino, CEO of Chesapeake Bay Media. He added, “We’ve spent the last 5 ½ years, the entire time we’ve owned this company, creating and refining media products that connect people with the region around them. We were thrilled when our Facebook reach hit 2.2 million people in one month this fall, and now we’ve added another channel that reaches thousands more at the local level.”

First launched in 1993 as the New Bay Times, Bay Weekly is read by more than 60,000 people at 500-plus locations throughout Anne Arundel and Calvert Counties.

“We think local news is the most sought-after in the media landscape, and Bay Weekly has set a good example how to maintain connections with the towns they serve,” said Chesapeake Bay Magazine Publisher John Stefancik.

“We’ve watched Bay Weekly for years, admiring both their steady advertising business and commitment to their community,” he added.

To read Bay Weekly‘s Editor’s Letter, “Christmas Comes Early to Bay Weekly” in its entirety, click here.

-Meg Walburn Viviano