Delaware Live CEO Shupe to exit company amid reorganization

WILMINGTON — Community news website Delaware Live has announced that one of its founders, Rep. Bryan Shupe (R-Milford), will be exiting the company on Sept. 30.

The move means Delaware Live owner and ShopRite President and CEO Chris Kenny will assume the top job, as well as Editor-in-Chief. Betsy Price, who served as the outlet’s first editor, will also step down from her role as she plans to write on a part-time basis during her retirement. Kenny will continue to manage the business’s administrative, finance and human resource functions.

Delaware Live is using the leadership changes to revisit its expansion plans, which will include hiring more journalists to the newsroom. The statewide outlet was first launched in 2020 as Shupe merged his own start-up news website Milford Live and went into business with Kenny who now plans to accelerate Delaware Live’s growth as a regional news website.

“I’m proud of the work our newspapers have accomplished in the four years since we launched, but I feel it is important to bring more resources to the table,” Kenny said in a prepared statement.

Part of those new resources include forming a four-person advisory board to support, coach and develop its marketing and editorial staff. The board includes former News Journal opinion editor John Sweeney, former Delaware Business Times editor Mike Mika, former ChristianaCare marketing director Peggy Mika and Vernon Proctor, a veteran corporate lawyer who was a founding partner of Proctor Heyman LLP. 

Delaware Live has also promoted George Rotsch to vice president of client communications, leading the company’s sales and marketing team as well as guiding clients’ promotions. 

“These changes will enable Delaware LIVE to expand the way we serve the community and enable us to continue to celebrate the accomplishments of our neighbors, shine a light on issues that we must decide together, encourage small businesses and nonprofits, and chronicle the best parts of our community, traditions, and shared values,” Kenny added.

In the past four years, Delaware Live has quickly grown through a series of acquisitions of other online outlets. In 2020, the company acquired TownSquare Delaware from Michael and Christy Fleming. Later on, the company expanded into local sports with the acquisition of 302 Sports. Last December, Delaware Live also acquired Chadds Ford Live as owners Emily and Jim Myers moved for retirement. Right now, Rotsch will also serve as the interim publisher of Delaware Live, Town Square LIVE, Milford LIVE, and Chadds Ford LIVE. 

“I’m almost jealous of what is planned for the next chapter with Delaware Live because I won’t be a part of it,” Shupe told the Delaware Business Times. “It’s almost bittersweet, because I made my decision before they were ready to start this new direction. It’s been an incredible experience being a part of Delaware Live and growing into towns across Delaware.”

Shupe had served as Delaware Live’s CEO since its launch in 2020, but he had worked in Delaware community news for years before going into business with Kenny. He founded Milford Live and its weekly email subscription service Milford Review with Dave Burris in 2010 to serve the need for “hyperlocal” news, covering city council meetings, local business profiles and more in the growing town. 

By the time Shupe connected with Kenny to launch Delaware Live, Milford Live was estimated to reach 10,000 people online.

“I was a couple of years out of college and just trying to figure out what business I could offer that served the community’s needs. And at the time, you were seeing a lot of the local news turn more to national matters instead of what was happening in my own town,” Shupe said. “I’m very grateful I had the opportunity and had the opportunity to sell it to [Delaware Live]. I don’t know what my life would have been without it.”

As Shupe exits Delaware Live, he will focus on two businesses that he and his wife Sherry started over the last 13 years: FurBaby Pet Resort and Farmacy Market.

The Shupes opened FurBaby Pet Resort, a luxury pet boarding and groomer that also sold high-end pet supplies, in downtown Milford in 2011, which later expanded its footprint. The couple added a second location in Rehoboth Beach in 2023 and opened a third in Easton, Md. last week. Across all three locations, the FurBaby Pet Resorts employs 40 people.

The Shupes later went into business with Chantel and Patrick Helmick and opened the Farmacy Market in downtown Milford. The food market that focuses on locally sourced food from farmers and producers opened last year. Plans are in the works to expand that business as well.

“With the growth we’re seeing with our brick-and-mortar businesses, my wife and I figured it was time to lean into it and focus on the future projects ahead,” Shupe told DBT. “I’ll miss journalism, and it’s the foundation of who I am and the skills I’ve learned that have served me well in business. But it’s time to tell the stories of our businesses.”

Meanwhile, Price will also be stepping down as Delaware Live’s editor-in-chief after decades of work in journalism. She had worked for the News Journal for 15 years, and before that, worked in newsrooms in Alabama. 

“After 45 years of living according to someone else’s deadlines, I’m looking forward to being able to set my own schedule,” Price told DBT.

While Shupe and Kenny declined to comment on possible replacements as of Tuesday morning, Shupe did acknowledge that Price would be writing for Delaware Live’s TownSquare Delaware brand on a part-time basis.