WATCHING CLOSELY: As 25-year-old Jared Kushner's ownership of The New York Observer nears the six-month mark, staffers and readers alike are still waiting to see what lies ahead for his new prize. But what has plainly not changed so far is the perennial turnover — most recently, TV reporter Rebecca Dana was poached by The New York Times, and senior editor Choire Sicha will return to Gawker Media.

"At one point, I did a head count of the number of Observer people at The New York Times, and it was 24," said longtime editor Peter Kaplan. "That kind of egress is not exactly news, but I hope it will change."

And while these positions and more remain open, another area of the weekly is being beefed up considerably, namely its real estate coverage. Since Kushner bought the paper with $10 million he said he earned from real estate investments while at Harvard, The Observer has significantly grown its real estate staff, from a single reporter edited by the managing editor to four new reporters and a full-time editor. As for how the paper will cover the holdings of the real estate firm Kushner Cos., which recently broke national records with a $1.8 billion office building purchase, Kushner and Kaplan said there is no stated policy. "Church and state still exist here very strongly," Kaplan said. "The news coverage of this paper is run by journalists with a lot of integrity, and that isn't changing." He added, "Any newspaper is an agreement between an editor and the publisher, and I happen to love this particular area of the agreement," meaning amplifying real estate coverage.

Real estate also drives more advertising than another traditional Observer strength, media and culture. Of course, more advertising might not be a bad thing — The Observer is said to lose $2 million a year. Kushner, said Kaplan, "wants to turn The New York Observer into a business."

A full redesign will be completed sometime this spring. While it is widely believed the paper will shrink to a tabloid, Kushner and Kaplan said it was too soon to confirm. The typically lingering articles, though, almost certainly will be trimmed.

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