HERE’S a painted ad featuring several Brooklyn newspapers of old, since absorbed into other media, at the Kings Highway N train station. Bay News and Brooklyn Courier were once one of the Courier group and have since become part of the Brooklyn Paper group. Personally, I remember the very beginnings of the Brooklyn Paper, which in 1978-1979 had offices on Court Street between Remsen and Montague Streets and besides turning out its own editions, also had a layout and printing service that our college paper, the St. Francis College Voice, employed. I am still facebook pals with the Brooklyn Paper’s Ed Weintrob and longtime columnist Jami Bernard and even led a Forgotten NY tour in Manhattanville for a group Jami was associated with. The paper’s cartoonist was a fellow named Batton Lash (RIP). I once asked him if his middle initial was “I,” but he wasn’t amused.
Brooklyn Family, meanwhile, is now part of the Vickie Schneps newspaper universe (which my old employer, the Queens Times-Ledger, is also now a part.) Back numbers of the Kings Courier can be found on microfilm at the Center for Brooklyn History, which describes it thusly:
Largely focusing on the neighborhood of South Flatbush, The Kings Courier provides local news coverage of business, politics, education, community events, clubs and organizations, arts, culture, religion, sports, and entertainment. The Kings Courier combines the former Kingsway Courier, Midwood Courier, and Avenue U News. Wedding, engagement, and Bar Mitzvah announcements all appear in a column called “Society Hi-Lites.” Obituaries do not appear in the paper. Early issues of the paper provide news coverage particular to the Jewish community, while later issues expand the scope of coverage. Advertisements and photographs appear throughout.
I worked for the Queens Times Ledger for 13 years, once to as many as three times a week, doing electronic layouts from 1996 through 2009. Only a stint in the hospital for valve surgery ended my tenure. I also seem to remember a one-day tryout at the Brooklyn Marketeer way down in Gravesend while I was still living in Bay Ridge. Its TV commercials pronounced it “mah-ka-TEE-uh.”
Check out the ForgottenBook, take a look at the gift shop. As always, “comment…as you see fit.” I earn a small payment when you click on any ad on the site.
1/6/26
4 comments
My great grandfather was( according to family history) supposedly a part owner of the Brooklyn Citizen Newspaper
This paper was published from 1887 until 1947.
A bit of online sleuthing shows that Fillmore Real Estate is still around, with an office on Avenue N, though with a different telephone number. It is now part of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices and therefore part of Warren Buffet’s empire, along with Geico Insurance, BNSF Railway, and Dairy Queen.
North Star Orthopedics seems to have disappeared.
I was friends with Ed Weintrob when I was editing/publishing my monthly SCIENCE FICTION CHRONICLE out of my nearby apartment. He came through for me when I needed to have an issue typeset due to a problem with the place I used to use. Also knew Batton Lash, and still have a piece of artwork he did for me. I too lament his passing. Then there was the Phoenix, published out of Atlantic Avenue… How is it, that in all our time working in related publishing companies and related places, we never bumped into each other?
Who knows, we may have