Local media in New York faces a new hurdle: visa denial

Phil O'Brien, a Briton who ran a publication in Manhattan for several years, was denied his visa because authorities in immigration judged his company in "marginal" difficulty.

At the end of a brief interview with US immigration officials this month, Phil O'Brien, a Briton who has lived in New York for a decade, received disappointing reviews news: His visa renewal application was rejected.

Immigration officials deemed his news company, W42ST, which covers Hell's Kitchen in midtown Manhattan, "marginal."

Across the country, local newsrooms have fallen on hard times. Hardly a week goes by without another newspaper closing or downsizing.

W42ST faces the same headwinds. After advertising revenue plummeted at the start of the pandemic, he stopped publishing a print magazine. The in-person event for the magazine's first awards show, scheduled for March 2020 and sponsored by Wells Fargo, had to be canceled. In September of that year, a publisher left the company because it was short of money.

But Mr. O'Brien did not expect to get there. He felt he was running a dedicated local news business that was just getting back on its feet after a bruising period. W42ST still publishes a newsletter and two articles a day online - covering stories like local art shows and the neighborhood's war on rats - with the help of a writer, proofreader and editor. social media.

"I feel like I'm being treated like a retiree who blogs every six weeks and wants a US visa “, Mr O’Brien, 60, said in a telephone interview from London. His story has generated some coverage — in W42ST, as well as The City in New York and The Press Gazette in Britain.

Mr. O'Brien launched W42ST with a co-founder in 2014, two years after moving to Hell's Kitchen. In 2015, he received an E-2, a visa for small business investors (he previously had a different visa). Mr. O'Brien's E-2 visa was scheduled to expire in the spring of 2020, but his renewal deadline was extended due to the pandemic.

This fall, in As part of his recent visa renewal application, Mr. O'Brien submitted numerous financial documents. These documents, some of which have been seen by The New York Times, reflect a company facing many challenges. Mr. O'Brien had to inject his own money to make it work.

Over the past few years, Mr. O'Brien has generated over $100,000 in advertising revenue. In 2017, KOB Publishing, W42ST's parent company, received over $400,000 from advertisers.

In 2021, however, that number was just over 60,000 $.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services states that E-2 visa recipients cannot run "fringe businesses," that they define as "a business that does not have the present or future ability to generate more than sufficient income to earn a living."

Mr. O'Brien fires his earnings from business profits, which he acknowledged have fluctuated in recent years."In 2020 and 2021, it was meager," he said, referring to his own salary. "It's been a good paycheck this year" of about $72,000, he added.

A State Department spokeswoman declined to comment on an individual case.