Tom Allon
Tom F. Allon is an American newspaper/magazine and digital media and events entrepreneur. He is publisher and former co-owner of "City & State NY". Previously he was president and co-owner of Manhattan Media. He was for eighteen months a candidate for mayor in the 2013 election, but subsequently dropped out of the race. He was endorsed by the Liberal Party in NY. Allon is also a columnist and pundit whose opinion pieces have appeared in the NY Daily News, NY Post, City & State and The Huffington Post. He is a serial media entrepreneur, who helped build  one public media company and two private media companies in the three decades between 1990-2020. He has bought and sold many publications and is considered an expert in launching and growing digital and events-driven local media outlets. Allon started his career as an educator, teaching English and Journalism at his alma mater, Stuyvesant High School. He has also taught Opinion Writing in the Journalism Department at Hunter College in New York City. Early life and education. Allon was raised in a Jewish family on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Allon attended Stuyvesant High School. He attended Cornell  University, where he worked for "The Cornell Daily Sun" and was its sports editor and a columnist. He graduated with a BA degree in History from Cornell in 1984. He then received an MS degree in Journalism from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1985. After graduating from Columbia, Allon taught English at his alma mater, Stuyvesant High School. Career. From 1986 to 1991, Allon was editor of "The West Side Spirit", a community newspaper he later owned. In 1992, he became the Publisher of The West Side Spirit and its sister paper on the East Side, Our  Town. In 1993, he was promoted to Executive Vice President of News Communications, Inc., a public company which owned 23 publications in the NY metropolitan area and Washington, D.C. In 1994, he helped in the creation of a new publication covering Congress and politics in DC, The Hill. In 2001, Allon spearheaded a management buyout of four weekly newspapers in Manhattan and created Manhattan Media, where he was CEO for more than a decade. Along with "The West Side Spirit", Manhattan Media also published the community newspapers "Our Town", "The Westsider", the "Chelsea Clinton News", the political newspapers "City Hall  and The Capitol", and the magazines "Avenue" and "New York Family". In 2013, Allon once again led a management buyout of City & State, NY from Manhattan Media and along with partner Steve Farbman, built that into the must read in local and state government. City & State publishes a weekly magazine, five daily emails and produces 50 events a year, including a robust slate of “Power Lists” which rank the powerful in New York State by geography, demography and by industry. In 2020, Allon sold City & State to Government Executive, a leading media, data and insights company based in Washington, D.C.  He stayed on as publisher of City & State, NY and is leading City & State’s expansion to other States, including Pennsylvania in April 2021. Allon is also a frequent pundit and columnist, whose work has appeared in the NY Daily News, The NY Post, The Huffington Post as well as City & State. Mayoral candidacy. On July 12, 2011, Allon announced that he would run for mayor of the City of New York. He stated that New Yorkers need a leader "like me who thinks like an Israeli: tough and always ready to defend his people." On January 10, 2012, the  Liberal Party of New York selected Allon as its mayoral candidate. While Allon "made a strong impression at a series of candidate forums," his candidacy failed to gain traction, and "his polling numbers mired in the low single digits." Allon raised more than $300,000 for his campaign but against more experienced candidates he had difficulty attracting major campaign donors, reporting just $17,335 in contributions in the two months before he dropped out of the race. Allon withdrew from the race on March 17, his campaign more than $4,000 in debt. The Liberal Party subsequently endorsed Catsimatidis. At  the same time, Allon acquired the news organization "City & State" from Manhattan Media. Allon later became a frequent pundit and columnist in local media on important public policy matters. Candidates for public office often sought his counsel and advice and in 2019-2020 he helped organize weekly “mayor classes” for Brooklyn Borough President and mayoral candidates Eric Adams, who later went on to win the election and become Mayor of New York City in 2022. Personal life. In 1993, Allon married Janet Wickenhaver, then a freelance crime reporter, in a Jewish ceremony in Soho. They divorced in 2015. Allon married  Rebecca Cohen in 2020 in a Zoom wedding ceremony at their second home in Long Island in the midst of the Covid pandemic. Outside activities and memberships. Allon helped create two public high schools, Eleanor Roosevelt High School on the Upper East Side and Frank McCourt High School on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. He also served on the advisory board of the West Side Crime Prevention Program, the board of arts institution Symphony Space, and the board of the Speyer Legacy School on the upper West Side of Manhattan. He was the president of the New York Press  Association in 2008. He was appointed to the Brooklyn Bridge Park board by then Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2019. He was appointed to the Board of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce in 2021. In March 2022, Mayor Eric Adams and Chancellor David Banks appointed Allon to the Public Education Policy Panel.