About Us:
Recreation News is the largest monthly travel and leisure tabloid in the Mid-Atlantic. We provide our readers with information on family vacation destinations in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Washington, D.C. as well as popular cruise and romantic getaway information.
Our lively editorial mix of active outdoor recreation, family vacation destinations, romantic getaways, historic sites, and cultural activities together with our wine, food, video, and music columns offers a rich picture of vacation, getaway, and entertainment possibilities in the Mid-Atlantic and beyond. Each month, our calendar presents hundreds of events, festivals, and activities to help you plan your leisure time.
Recreation News, established in 1982, publishes Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Md. printed editions as well as an online edition and searchable archive of past issues. In addition, we present a weekly radio program in Washington that details events and special vacation values in the Mid-Atlantic region.
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History:
Recreation News was established in 1982 as an independent newspaper that would also serve as the official publication for the League of Federal Recreation Associations (LEFRA). These organizations typically offered a wide variety of activities from sports leagues and bus trips to discounted tickets to theme parks, concerts, and plays. They eventually began offering discounts on insurance, hotels, car rentals, and more.
Recreation News was distributed free to members through individual inter-office mail, which insured distribution directly to individual workers’ desks. Over the years, LEFRA evolved into a series of different organizations. With the privatization of many government services, membership was opened to private industry as well.
In 1998, the paper was acquired by the Indiana Printing and Publishing Company, an established, century-old, multi-state organization in the newspaper, magazine, and communications industry. In 1999, Karl Teel became the third publisher in the history of Recreation News. Today, the monthly tabloid newspaper has a circulation of more than 100,000, with a readership of one-quarter million, a weekly radio program, and separate editions for Maryland, Washington, D.C., and the Internet. The unique relationship with federal civilian and military recreation organizations remains an important component of the paper’s distribution and readership, however, employees at private companies and individual subscribers also make up an additional large segment.
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Reader Pledge:
At Recreation News, we believe that America needs time off: time for outdoor recreation, time for family vacations, time to enjoy the historic and cultural sites throughout the Mid-Atlantic and America. We serve as investment counselors, helping our readers invest their most precious asset – their leisure time! We pledge to bring our readers a lively editorial mix of stories on family vacation destinations, romantic getaways, Civil War attractions, historic and cultural sites as well as outdoor recreation activities like hiking, biking, whitewater rafting, and more. We also pledge to provide informative advertising and reader response service to permit you to get additional information directly from destinations that interest you. It’s a tall order, but we have the experience and the inside knowledge to deliver!
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Staff:
Publisher: Karl Teel
Karl Teel began his lifelong association with the newspaper and publishing business as a 12-year-old, when he had the largest newspaper route in Baltimore County, Md. The entrepreneur had to hire assistants to help with deliveries and won awards along the way.
After graduating from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County with majors in geography and math, Karl returned to the Baltimore Sun where he became the youngest district sales manager and territory sales manager. Karl later became director of circulation for the new Maryland Pennysaver Group. After earning an MBA from the University of Baltimore, Karl became general manager of the Pennysaver’s manufacturing and distribution company in Long Island, New York. Returning to Maryland to raise his children, Karl became director of production for Patuxent Publishing, where he shepherded the growth of new paper acquisitions and production facilities.
To realize his dream of becoming a publisher, Karl, joined long-time friend and business associate Mike Donnelly from Indiana Printing and Publishing in 1999 to build Recreation News into the product it is today.
Editor: Marvin Bond
Marvin Bond has spent nearly four decades in government and private sector communications. After directing communications for Maryland’s legendary state comptroller, Louis L. Goldstein for 27 years – where he also produced a weekly syndicated radio program on Maryland – Marvin handled marketing for four tourist attractions in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. A freelance writing relationship with Recreation News led him to join the publication as editor in December, 2007.
Marvin has written and edited numerous publications during his career, including articles for the group tour and family vacation audiences. He edited Louis L. Goldstein’s Maryland, published by the Maryland Archives to celebrate Maryland’s 350th anniversary in 1984.
Marvin graduated from Wake Forest University and is a longtime member of the Public Relations Society of America.