40 Years of Schneps Media
From One Living Room to a Lasting Empire
By:
For Victoria Schneps, the path to building one of New York’s most influential media empires did not begin in a newsroom. It began with purpose and an idea.
A Purpose Born From Advocacy
She thought her life would follow a different road, one shaped by a simple and quiet life in the suburbs. But when her daughter, Lara, was born, everything changed.
Just hours after her birth, Lara turned blue in the nursery. A lack of oxygen caused severe brain damage, and doctors told Schneps that her daughter would require lifelong care.
In an instant, the life she had envisioned shifted entirely.
Determined to give her daughter every possible opportunity, Schneps and her husband, Murray, sought out an infant rehabilitation program at Willowbrook State School on Staten Island, where Lara could receive physical and occupational therapy. At the same time, Schneps brought together a group of women who helped volunteer and raise money, forming what is now known as LifesWORC–an organization that provides programs and services for over 2,000 people with developmental disabilities and autism.
Within a year, however, everything had changed once again.
Budget cuts under Governor Nelson Rockefeller led to severe staffing shortages at Willowbrook, creating conditions that Schneps and other families would describe as inhumane. Residents who required constant care were left without adequate support, and the system meant to help them began to fail.
Schneps refused to accept this.
Alongside her husband and other families, she organized protests and brought attention to the conditions inside Willowbrook. Their efforts gained widespread visibility through investigative reporting by Geraldo Rivera on Eyewitness News, exposing the reality of life inside the institution to the public.
What began as advocacy quickly turned into something much more.
On behalf of their daughter and countless others, Schneps and her husband filed a federal class action lawsuit against the state. The case would ultimately lead to the closure of Willowbrook–now Staten Island University–and the creation of community-based group homes, fundamentally changing how individuals with developmental disabilities are cared for across New York.
It was through this ongoing fight that Schneps found her calling: people needed to know what was happening in their communities.
It was through that experience that she found herself inspired by the power of media.
“Before then, I never thought that I would be in the news business,”
Building Something From Nothing
In 1985, as neighborhoods across New York City began to shift from rentals to ownership of apartments, Schneps noticed something others hadn’t. People weren’t just living in their communities anymore, they were invested in them. And with that investment came a desire to feel connected.
With a master’s degree in education and no formal background in journalism, Schneps took a leap. She partnered with a former Daily News editor and launched her first community newspaper, The Queens Courier. The early days were anything but conventional. Stories were written at the kitchen table, photos were taken with an “old-fashioned” camera, and pages were assembled together one by one with a glue stick.
“I worked 24/7, day and night,”
The night the very first issue went to print, she stood inside a Long Island City pressroom, waiting to see the paper she had built from nothing come to life. But when the first copy rolled off the press, something was very wrong. A large solid black box sat where the front-page photograph was supposed to be.
“I screamed out, ‘Stop the presses!’,”
In the very early hours of the morning, the presses were halted, the image was fixed, and the paper was reprinted. It was this exact moment filled with stress and uncertainty that would define the very business she was building.
From that first issue, growth came organically. Neighbors from surrounding communities began to take notice. They saw local stories reflected in the pages and wanted that same sense of connection in their own neighborhoods. One by one, new publications were created.
A Mission That Never Changed
Over the next four decades, the media industry transformed in ways few could have predicted. Print expanded into digital. News moved from front pages to phone screens. Audiences gained more options and ways to engage than ever before.
The way people consumed news changed entirely, and Schneps Media evolved with it. Through it all, the mission Schneps built everything on never once wavered.
Today, Schneps Media reaches audiences through more than 100 print and digital publications, generating tens of millions of page views each month. Behind that reach is a network of local reporters who are people deeply connected to the communities they cover, telling the stories that may otherwise go unheard.
Because for Schneps, it has never been about chasing the biggest story. It has been about telling the ones closest to home.
Family At The Core
As the media empire continued to grow, so did a family legacy.
“I have memories of my mom working on the newspaper in the house… putting the paper together herself,”
After beginning his career in investment banking, Josh felt pulled back to the business his mother had built from the ground up. But when he officially joined the company, he didn’t step directly into leadership as most may have thought. He started at the ground level.
He sold ads, helped with distribution, wrote stories, took photos, and learned every aspect of the operation firsthand.
“I got a chance to do everyone’s jobs which in turn earned me people’s respect,”
Today, as CEO and co-publisher, Josh works alongside his mother, not just to grow their shared empire, but to carry forward the values it was built on.
A Lasting Legacy That Continues To Grow
What began as a single community publication has since grown into a dynamic media empire spanning print, digital platforms, social media, and a wide range of business and community-events, meeting people wherever they are, while remaining rooted in the neighborhoods they serve.
As Schneps Media marks its 40th anniversary, both leaders have put an emphasis on investment into the future.
For Josh, the future is about continuing to grow the relationship between the company and community.
“We’re really investing in our people and our company so we can become even better than before,”
For Victoria Schneps, the story has always come back to the people who made it all possible.
“My success is not solely mine–it’s the teams that surround me,”
And while the company continues to evolve, one thing remains unchanged.
The purpose that began in a living room.
