The North Coast Current of Encinitas and OsideNews.com of Oceanside are combining their news presence in North San Diego County this week, the websites’ founders announced Feb. 22.

The joining of the two online community news outlets is the result of the purchase of OsideNews.com by Mercury Current LLC, the company that owns the North Coast Current.

“Our websites have paralleled each other in many ways since OsideNews’ creation. It’s an ideal fit,” North Coast Current Publisher and Mercury Current LLC Manager Roman S. Koenig said. “We’ve each had a consistent focus on the core communities we cover. Our news philosophies and site designs also share similarities. The Current celebrates its 20th anniversary this month. It’s a timely combination.”

North County photojournalist Steve Marcotte founded OsideNews.com in 2013.

“Roman has the knowledge, skill, and, most importantly, the passion to build up OsideNews on the foundation that the Oceanside and Carlsbad communities have helped me create,” Marcotte said. “Roman has close ties to North County having worked at the North County Times, where we first met, Blade-Citizen, Times Advocate and The San Diego Union-Tribune. OsideNews cannot be in better hands.”

Koenig, who first founded the North Coast Current in 2002 and launched the present online version in 2012, said he expects there will be crossover content and branding between the two sites now under the same ownership, but the sites themselves will remain individual to the communities they cover.

“OsideNews has been a labor of love for nearly a decade, and I deeply appreciate Steve’s faith in me to keep it going,” Koenig said.

“It is bittersweet as I pass the torch to Roman,” Marcotte said. “I just want to say thank you so very much for supporting this little endeavor. I have been blessed.”

Marcotte and Koenig have worked in local journalism for many years.

“Steve and I have known each other in our respective work since the late 1990s,” Koenig said.

Koenig worked on the news desk at the daily North County Times in various terms between 1995 and 2012, when it was folded into The San Diego Union-Tribune. He worked as an assistant news editor at the Union-Tribune in the 2000s. In addition to his work in the industry, Koenig is a longtime journalism lecturer at San Diego State University and adjunct professor in cinema and journalism at San Diego City College.

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