In the 1980’s, founder Elizabeth Claire attended an ESL conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. There, she saw a newspaper produced by the Canadian government. It had articles about Canadian history and government and was written in easy English. She thought that there should be something like that for people coming to the United States. She waited to see if someone would develop one.
Tired of waiting, she decided to develop one of her own. In 1996, together with Mariko Sasaki, director of JBC Language in Fort Lee, New Jersey, she founded Easy English NEWS. At first, it was a free newspaper for Bergen County, New Jersey newcomers and was supported by advertising. After seven months, Easy English NEWS became a national newspaper sold by subscription.
In 2007, Elizabeth Claire moved the newspaper to Virginia Beach, Virginia where we still produce the paper today.
In 2020, we partnered with Big Timber Media to develop Easy English NEWS Digital. With our ever changing world, Easy English NEWS Digital has allowed us to be more adaptable to our subscribers’ needs.
In January 2021, Elizabeth decided to retire from the newspaper to focus on writing more books. She passed the torch to her managing editor Carol Brigham, of Pifer-Brigham, LLC. Carol and the Easy English NEWS team look forward to partnering with you for many years to come.
