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Newspapers: ABANDONING SHIP (7#) -

Elvis may have left the building long ago,
but have you heard about The Record?

The Bergen Record of Hackensack NJ is getting ready to vacate their flagship building in Hackensack. They are moving their HQ to Garret Mountain, which is not in Bergen County. Fleet Street is very famous as a synonym for the British Press, but newspapers migrated from there, too. Periodically, newspapers need to update their equipment, and their companies need to undergo restructuring.

Thus, The Record's move is just a symbol of the end of an era. It joins the Hackensack Ghosts of Christmas Past along with: the Arnold Constable Department Store, the Oritani movie theater, and the Womrath Book Shop.

Now known as The Record of North Jersey or the North Jersey Media Corp [njmg] or simply North Jersey Dot Com, it is a privately-owned company accountable to no one else. And it is perhaps most famous for its long-running success at avoiding the unionization of the newspaper's staff.

How's their Local Coverage? They seem to hire reporters from other areas of the country who are not familiar with Bergen County - at least for the half century I lived in their territory.

Can The Record do anything right? I am told it has a very good Sports section, but I don't read Sports.

So, who's the Keeper of the Blogs in NJ? At the bidding of Jeff Jarvis, the NJ Blog Keeper is at the Star-Ledger, of course.

You may have recently read much public hand-wringing and mourning over changes occurring at some other newspapers. Most U.S. newspapers are currently experiencing some advertising losses. But each newspaper is unique with factors which are peculiar to it alone. Like Tolstoy's remark about happy and unhappy families.

:: Steven Hart's commentary:
..... Dilbertization of The Record;

:: Bob Torricelli's commentary: because
even a broken clock can be right twice a day.

:: Paul Schwartz who works for The Record responds.
Notice his nasty tone - he just proved Torricelli's point.

"Freedom of the Press
belongs to those who own the presses."
-- Walter Lippman

+ Maybe not so much anymore ;-)

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