Newspaper Publisher, Swap Meet Owner Buried

Joseph Bianchi, publisher of a weekly community newspaper and owner of swap meets in Paramount and Whittier, was buried Tuesday in a private ceremony attended by more than 200 people at a Rowland Heights cemetery, a spokesman said. Bianchi, 76, died of a heart attack last week in his Laguna Hills home.

In addition to publishing the News Tribune, which is based in Paramount, and owning the swap meets, Bianchi owned travel agencies and wine vineyards. Bianchi’s son, Glenn, will now head his father’s businesses, which employ more than 250 workers, said Minnie Chivas, Bianchi’s personal secretary.

Bianchi was born April 1, 1915, in Brooklyn, N.Y. He studied chemistry at Brooklyn College before moving to California to pursue business opportunities. Bianchi recruited a small group of investors and built the Paramount Drive-In theater in 1947.

In the early 1950s, Bianchi was searching for additional ways to generate income from the drive-in properties. “He came up with the idea of letting vendors use the property during the day,” said Bill DeSelms, editor of the News Tribune. “He was the innovator of swap meets.” Bianchi also owned and ran a swap meet at the Sundown Drive-In theater in Whittier.

Bianchi entered the community newspaper business in 1984 when he founded the Paramount News Tribune. By 1988, he had community newspapers in Cerritos, Norwalk, Downey, Bellflower, Lakewood and north Long Beach.

The recession forced Bianchi to begin scaling back some of his operations in 1991. Last September, he reduced his newspaper operations to a single publication serving the same six communities. The News Tribune has a circulation of 41,000, DeSelms said.

The Paramount Drive-In stopped showing movies last year. Bianchi had said in past interviews that the popularity of videocassette recorders and first-run movies on television hurt the drive-in movie business.

To make up for the lost movie revenue, Bianchi tried to persuade Paramount officials to allow him to run a huge bingo game at the Paramount Drive-In. People would have played in their cars as the numbers flashed on the screen. Paramount officials rejected the proposal, citing a city ordinance limiting bingo to indoor facilities.

Bianchi is survived by his wife, Catherine, and three children from a previous marriage, Glenn and Kathleen Bianchi, and Patricia Cohl.