A Long Island business publication that launched earlier this year is providing coverage that differentiates itself by focusing on a company’s strategy, culture and the lessons that it learned along the way.
Founders and longtime television channel executives Peter Shields, Frank Pokorney and Alain Tingue left Optimum’s News 12, which operates in seven markets, last year after accepting buyouts and began looking for ways to take advantage of their experience.
“I always wanted to own my own business, and when I took the buyout I did a lot of networking,” said Shields. “I started falling in love with meeting people and hearing their stories.”
Island Edge Business News, which launched Memorial Day weekend, now has a several thousand readers, primarily from the business community, to its Wednesday email newsletter. Shields says it’s working on selling advertising and sponsorships to the newsletter soon and hopes to generate “decent revenue” in the next year. “Breaking even will not be that hard,” he added.
Its business news competitors are Newsday, which focuses primarily on the bigger businesses on Long Island, and Long Island Business News, which is owned by BridgeTower Media.
Shields was director of weather, talent and operations at News 12 while Pokorney was director of digital news. Tingue was director of operations for the Long Island and Westchester regions of News 12 and a former videographer and editor.
“We all have 20+ years in local news,” said Shields, who is CEO and president. “We all come from a journalism background. We don’t do the pay-for-play thing. If you have an interesting story, we’re going to cover it. And if you advertise with us, it’s not going to sway our coverage.”
All three left News 12 during the Summer of 2025 and built the website during the winter. Shields declined to disclose the news operation’s expenses but said, “It hasn’t cost as much as you might think.”
Among the ways Island Edge is differentiating its coverage is focusing on nonprofits as well as digging into company culture. “In almost every story, there are key takeaways,” said Shields.
“We came into this with the philosophy that we need content, and then we need an audience. And then we can monetize it,” he said. “We’re putting together a much better story and building a reputation very fast.”
