Rubenstein Flacks Extend Their Empire To 'New York Observer'

Last year, Jared Kushner, the New York Observer publisher and real estate mogul and lover of Ivanka Trump, was represented by publicist Steven Rubenstein—but his weekly pink paper wasn't. (Just last December, one Observer editor (uh, me!) was assigned a short profile of the Rubenstein family, and disclaimed that "Both the Kushner Companies and Jared Kushner, who is the owner and publisher of The New York Observer, are clients of Rubenstein Associates. The Observer is not.") But ever since the paper's physical and web redesigns (the paper went tabloid back in February) took place and the business side was built up, two Rubenstein account reps have been doing "proactive" work on behalf of the paper, according to Steven Rubenstein. (The paper has also recently hired their own first director of marketing, Alexandra Mitchell.) Being represented by Rubenstein is going to make their reporters' jobs fun—look for the sure-to-be-weekly disclaimer in the paper's media and real estate columns, which regularly cover Rubenstein clients.