Gannett shutting Boston real estate publication

Gannett is shutting the real estate news publication Boston Homes, reports Boston Business Journal managing editor Don Seiffert.

Seiffert writes, “In a letter to readers published in the final edition, Boston Homes publisher David Petruska wrote that the newspaper published ‘well over 3,675 home portraits ranging from studios to penthouses to single-family homes,’ and ran ‘thousands of listings … from brokerages across the city, giving our readers a complete overview of the weekly Boston luxury market.’

“‘Throughout the years, we became known as Boston’s ‘Real Estate Bible’ — the one place to get a complete snapshot of home values, homes for sale and open houses across the city,’ Petruska wrote. ‘Home buyers kept Boston Homes under their arms as they visited open house events.’

“The closure of the publication has ramifications beyond the local residential real estate industry. Wayne Braverman, editor of Boston Homes for the past six years, told the Business Journal that he was laid off from his job at Gannett after a 44-year career spent at that company and its various predecessors.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.