Categories: OLD Media Moves

Biz reporter sues businessman, alleges he stole magazine idea

A former Star-Ledger business reporter is suing a New Jersey real estate investor, claiming he stole his idea for a magazine devoted to covering Newark’s downtown.

Thomas Zambito writes, “In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court Tuesday, Philip Read says Paul Profeta took his idea for a magazine called ‘The Downtowner’ and turned it into his own publication, which debuted in August 2013.

“‘To the Plaintiff’s shock, Profeta published his first issue of ‘Radius: Brick City and Beyond,’ a 96-page Newark-based publication mirrored largely off the business model, contacts and footwork the Plaintiff created and performed,’ the lawsuit claims.

“Read claims he broached the idea for a magazine to Profeta in November 2010, shortly after he’d interviewed him for a Star-Ledger story that was published in October discussing Profeta’s work with a group that provides no-interest loans to minority-run businesses in Newark.

“Read’s pitch to Profeta was that the magazine would fill a void left by The Star-Ledger following staff reductions brought on by a worsening economic climate for the newspaper, according to the lawsuit.”

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.

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