The Observer Opens Week of Parties

Since Jared Kushner bought The New York Observer last July, the paper has gone through considerable changes. It shrunk from a broadsheet to a tabloid, scrapped some of its throwback design touches for a more modern look, and beefed up its real estate coverage. The paper's latest development is a foray into event marketing, with a series of parties in a SoHo retail space that kicked off last night.

Pam Bristow, who produced the event for The Observer, said the project started when Kushner asked her to pitch a marketing tie-in for Cushman & Wakefield when the real estate firm committed to a large ad buy. Her concept? "A six-day event showing six of the best young talents" in fashion, art, and music, she said, all inside a retail space on the market represented by Cushman & Wakefield.

Last night's opening-night party was a bare-bones affair (no food, just drinks from a vodka sponsor) that drew a full house, with a crowd representing a wide spread of ages and dress codes mingling among installations rich with references to The Observer's trademark pink paper.Called "Location"—also the name of The Observer's real estate section—the paper's temporary entertaining headquarters at 21 Mercer Street will host a party for fashion label Ruffian tonight and a screening of a film by Susan Cianciolo on Friday, among its other festivities. Seventh House PR is helping with guest lists.