The 41-year-old Syracuse New Times has been sold to a Cazenovia businessman.
The SNT is one of the oldest locally owned alternative newsweeklies in the United States.
Art Zimmer, the weekly’s owner for the past 26 years, sold the newspaper to William Brod, who has worked for companies such as Syracuse Supply, Pass & Seymour Legrand and C&S Operations.
The 71-year-old Zimmer has been fielding a variety of purchase offers, he stated in a letter to the paper’s staff, but he sold to Brod because he’s locally based. “Local ownership of media, especially like the New Times, is very important,” Zimmer wrote.
While the New Times claims to distribute 46,000 free copies each Wednesday, its 2008 circulation as audited by the Circulation Verification Council was 39,690.
The 50-year-old Brod took over the newspaper’s operation on April 7.
Brod sits on the boards of the CNY Community Foundation and a Young Life, a Christian organization. He’s a member of the Cazenovia Republican Town Committee.
The New Times was founded in 1969 by publisher Ken Simon, then a 21-year-old senior at Syracuse University. At first Simon called it the Orange Pennysaver then the Campus Pennysaver, but by summer 1970 it was the Syracuse New Times.
In 1981, the paper was absorbed by The Advocate newspapers chain in Connecticut which sold it to Zimmer in 1984.
Zimmer, who had been president of the Onondaga Ski Club, functioned as ski editor for The Post-Standard for five years. The daily, however, discontinued his “On the Slopes” column in 1983. After he bought the New Times, “On the Slopes” appeared there until 1991.
In 1986, Zimmer moved the newspaper’s offices from Armory Square to its own building at 1415 W. Genesee St.
In the late-1990s, Zimmer bought the Zimmer Car Co., which he will continue to operate.
