Under the planned merger, which is expected to take place by the end of the year, the Eastside Business Journal will integrate its 18 employees and its free request/subscriber base of 10,400 into its parent publication, the Puget Sound Business Journal, which has 42 employees and a paid circulation of 21,121. The broader publication will retain all current employees and maintain offices in Seattle and Bellevue.

The Eastside Business Journal began in 1996 as a monthly publication written by the Puget Sound Business Journal staff. It was launched as a stand-alone weekly in March 1999. American City Business Journals Chairman and CEO Ray Shaw says the decision to merge the two newspapers stems from the fact that the two publications were bumping into each other with news coverage and competing for many of the same readers and advertisers. Once the merger is complete, the Puget Sound Business Journal will be the second largest paper for the 41-paper chain in both circulation and employees.