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| LOCK THEM UP! From the Dump Trump Daily Facebook page, one of several that excoriate President Trump and call for his impeachment. |
-- HACKENSACK, N.J.
By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR
The story of what has happened to The Record in the past decade could be called, "The Incredible Shrinking Newshole."
Even before my local daily newspaper was sold to Gannett in July 2016, the amount of space devoted to news -- including reports from the 90 or so towns in the circulation area -- shrank dramatically.
For example, four or five years ago, then-Publisher Stephen A. Borg decided saving money on newsprint was more important than providing a comprehensive local news report.
He ordered the local-news section for Bergen County and a second one for Passaic and Morris counties to be combined, which explains why Hackensack readers see more Paterson news than stories from their own city.
Gannett boast
Starting last Monday, a banner across the top of the front page promised "OUR BIGGEST PAPER OF THE YEAR" on Thanksgiving.
It was anything but -- unless you counted numerous advertising inserts.
I don't read the Sports section, and wasn't going to join the Black Friday madness at the malls.
So I was left with four sections with only 40 pages of news and ads when I finally got around to looking at the Thursday paper on Friday.
Long drive
In Friday's Better Living section, the editors recommended shopping center restaurants, including Legal Sea Foods and California Pizza Kitchen in the far-off Mall at Short Hills.
Those same restaurants operate at Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus, in the heart of the circulation area, but there was no mention of that.
Store shooting?
The Record publishes photos from the newspaper's archives in a feature called "Vintage New Jersey."
On the front of last Monday's Better Living section, photos of Bergen housewives shopping in supermarkets in the 1970s appeared innocent enough.
But on 3BL a caption on one of the photos said:
"1977: A&P shooting scene on Lincoln Avenue Glen Rock."
What shooting? And was this an appropriate choice for the photo archives feature?
The story of what has happened to The Record in the past decade could be called, "The Incredible Shrinking Newshole."
Even before my local daily newspaper was sold to Gannett in July 2016, the amount of space devoted to news -- including reports from the 90 or so towns in the circulation area -- shrank dramatically.
For example, four or five years ago, then-Publisher Stephen A. Borg decided saving money on newsprint was more important than providing a comprehensive local news report.
He ordered the local-news section for Bergen County and a second one for Passaic and Morris counties to be combined, which explains why Hackensack readers see more Paterson news than stories from their own city.
Gannett boast
Starting last Monday, a banner across the top of the front page promised "OUR BIGGEST PAPER OF THE YEAR" on Thanksgiving.
It was anything but -- unless you counted numerous advertising inserts.
I don't read the Sports section, and wasn't going to join the Black Friday madness at the malls.
So I was left with four sections with only 40 pages of news and ads when I finally got around to looking at the Thursday paper on Friday.
Long drive
In Friday's Better Living section, the editors recommended shopping center restaurants, including Legal Sea Foods and California Pizza Kitchen in the far-off Mall at Short Hills.
Those same restaurants operate at Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus, in the heart of the circulation area, but there was no mention of that.
Store shooting?
The Record publishes photos from the newspaper's archives in a feature called "Vintage New Jersey."
On the front of last Monday's Better Living section, photos of Bergen housewives shopping in supermarkets in the 1970s appeared innocent enough.
But on 3BL a caption on one of the photos said:
"1977: A&P shooting scene on Lincoln Avenue Glen Rock."
What shooting? And was this an appropriate choice for the photo archives feature?
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