The East Bay Express has been sold and is joining a new group of alternative weeklies, anchored by the Metro Silicon Valley weekly, outgoing Express Editor and Publisher Stephen Buel said.

Oakland’s alternative weekly is now part of The Weeklys, a five-newspaper group that also includes Santa Cruz’s Good Times, the North Bay Bohemian and the Pacific Sun, Buel said in a statement.

“The East Bay Express has for four decades been a bastion of great writing, distinguished

investigative journalism and important cultural coverage,” Metro founder and CEO Dan Pulcrano said in a press release. “It fits perfectly with our strengths and mission to serve local communities in the greater Bay Area.”

Under Pulcrano, Buel said, “the Express could not be in better hands.”

Buel will continue as a contractor and editor during the transition. The Express will continue to publish during the coronavirus shelter-in-place order, Buel said. Oakland and Alameda magazines, which Buel and his wife, editor Judith Gallman, run, were not part of the Express sale.

Founded in 1978, the Express emerged as the alternative voice of Richmond, Berkeley and Oakland, producing long-form journalism and critiques of the local arts and music scene. Since New Times Media purchased the paper in 2001, it has changed hands multiple times.

Buel, who joined the paper in 2001, bought Express with a group of investors in 2006, bringing back under local ownership. After a hiatus in the newsroom, Buel returned in 2017, when Buel’s Telegraph Media, which publishes Oakland and Alameda magazines, bought out the other Express investors.

In July 2018, Buel briefly resigned as publisher after admitting to taking down three blog posts without consulting the publication’s editor and using a racial slur during a staff meeting, prompting two employees to quit in protest.

In January 2019, the Express laid off a third of its employees, including all editorial staff except then-Editor Robert Gammon. Gammon, a longtime Express writer and editor, later left to work for State Sen. Nancy Skinner. The layoffs came after the Express lost a lawsuit filed by former sales and marketing director, Terry Furry, who had sued alleging he was denied overtime pay. A court awarded Furry $750,000.

“These are obviously extraordinary times for independent publishers,” Buel said. “That Metro remains enthusiastic about our industry even amidst the unprecedented chaos of this moment in time shows the depth of Dan’s commitment to local businesses and independent journalism.”

The new group will be known as ”Weeklys” and a new website, Weeklys.com, is under construction.