Recreation News

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 eventual... ly 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.Read More