Adam Goldstein purchases Business Publishers Inc. from Leonard Eiserer.

A legend and lightning-rod in both the newsletter industry and association, Leonard A.C. Eiserer founded Business Publishers Inc. in 1963 with the launch of Air/Water Pollution Report, now called Clean Water Report., a pioneering newsletter covering all aspects of environmental pollution when few people even knew how to spell either word.

Eiserer was one of a handful of Washington, D.C. newsletter publishers responsible for the industry's dramatic growth in the 1960s and '70s, largely fueled by the Johnson administration's Great Society programs. BPI titles dating from that era, and still being published, include Economic Opportunity Report (1965), Solid Waste Report (1970), Land Use Law Report and Urban Transport News (1973). Nuclear Waste News followed in 1981.

One of Eiserer's rare stumbles along the road to success was not entirely his fault. Certain that solar energy would eventually be a major player in U.S. energy policy, he not only launched a solar newsletter but also acquired eight or nine others through the years so that he could be the major solar publisher when the day arrived. Today BPI publishes no solar titles.

With the 2003 launch of Native American Law Report, BPI now publishes two dozen business and professional newsletters. Len Eiserer, who turns 89 this June, had been looking for a successor for a long time, while continuing to actively run the business. He said his decision to retire was motivated by two factors: his age and his disinterest in adjusting to the internet era.

Enter Adam Goldstein and his Jade Media Partners

Adam Goldstein, who served as marketing director of BPI before resigning in 1992, has now returned as the company's owner and publisher in partnership with some of the industry's best-known leaders under the name of Jade Media Partners LLC.

Goldstein formed Jade Media Partners earlier this year to acquire BPI, and he recruited two newsletter experts as his investors: David Foster, president of the Institute of Management and Administration, and Frank Joseph, president of Key Communications Group and a leading newsletter marketing consultant. Additional financing was secured through Mercantile Potomac Bank.

Goldstein said that Marjorie Weiner, former BPI marketing director and NEPA president, has returned to the company to help with sales, marketing, and administration. Eric Easton, who served on BPI's board before the sale, will remain on the board. Easton was with BPI for 22 years, and had been groomed for BPI's presidency, according to Eiserer, but left the company to teach communications law at the University of Baltimore.

Eiserer said of the change of ownership, "Faced with perhaps the greatest revolution in communications since the invention of the printing press, publishing companies must reinvent themselves to meet the perceived internet requirements of their readers. The talented Jade Media partnership organized by Goldstein should compete ably in the internet world."

Goldstein in turn described Eiserer as "one of the true giants in newsletter publishing." As his first official act, he conferred the title Publisher Emeritus on Eiserer, promising to keep him on the company's masthead.

BPI, 8737 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, MD 20910, 301-587-6300, fax [phone], www.bpinews.com