Eli Isenberg; Newspaper Consultant, Publisher of Monterey Park Progress

Eli Isenberg, 87, a newspaper consultant and San Gabriel Valley publisher who ran the Monterey Park Progress for more than 30 years. Isenberg, the son of Ukrainian immigrants, grew up in Boston and fell in love with newspapers as a boy. He worked his way through journalism school at Boston University and got his first reporting job in 1936 covering obituaries, high school sports and local government for the Lynn Telegram-News north of Boston. After serving in the Navy in World War II, during which he published a newspaper at his base in Asheville, N.C., he moved to California. In 1946, he purchased a weekly paper in Monterey Park. He and his wife, Josephine, worked as publisher and editor for the first five years. The circulation grew from 2,000 to 60,000 by 1978, when Isenberg sold the paper to the Scripps-Howard organization. Active in community affairs, Isenberg editorialized against a proposal to establish a large county dump in the western part of the city and helped persuade the Legislature to pass a “home rule” law requiring local approval of such projects. His paper’s editorials also helped Monterey Park establish a city manager form of government. Isenberg remained in Monterey Park through decades of tumultuous demographic change and tried to promote dialogue in a city often torn by debates pitting longtime white and Latino residents against Asian newcomers. The paper earned several state awards for editorial excellence. Isenberg spent his later years as a newspaper consultant. He also became an advocate of animal welfare and founded the Protectors of Animals, a San Gabriel Valley volunteer group offering animal adoption, spaying and neutering services. On Monday in Irvine, where he lived in retirement.