A teenage entrepreneur has made £300,000 by selling a website he set up in his bedroom 18 months ago to a company planning to build a global multi-media firm focused on the Jewish community.

Benjamin Cohen, 18, from Elstree in north London, has sold his sojewish.net website to AIM-listed Totally in return for shares. The site, which was set up in 1997, originally featured a cyber-rabbi, agony aunt and business listings. It now includes synagogue listings and kosher recipes.

Totally has also bought London Jewish News, a free newspaper with a shareholding in sojewish, for around £3m, including £1.5m debt.

London Jewish News has a circulation of 40,000. Revenues in the year to December 1999 were £720,000. It is forecast to break even next year.

The present owner is Michael Sinclair, a prominent businessman in the Jewish community who will become non-executive chairman of the enlarged group.

Totally chief executive Steve Burns said the company planned to break into the US market by buying a Jewish television station or newspaper. An approach for the Jerusalem Post, owned by Conrad Black's Hollinger Group and valued at around £100m, has been rejected. Observers believe virtualjerusalem.com or one of the Jewish TV channels in the US could be a target.

"We want to build a Jewish-focused group that can achieve critical mass, harness serious sales and marketing skills and become a sizeable and profitable concern," Mr Burns said.

Totally was set up to create specialist websites for defined communities.

Its existing Jewish assets include Totallyjewish.com.

Mr Burns hopes to emulate ZeeTV, which has focused on the British Asian community after buying a series of television, print and film assets. He believes that in time his media group will expand into Jewish-focused restaurants, clubs and travel services.