Readers continued to drop The Record and NorthJersey.com in 2021 -- 5 years after $40M purchase by the Gannett Co.

EX-PUBLISHER TURNS DEVELOPER: Stephen A. Borg, former publisher of The Record, is a partner in the development of Print House, luxury apartments and retail at 150 River St. in Hackensack, where the newspaper operated until 2009.

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39,683 daily, 48,684 on Sunday

is the new circulation low

 Editor's note: I just received an email listing the sale and purchase of homes by Malcolm A. Borg,  former chairman of North Jersey Media Group; and the divorce granted to attorney Jennifer Borg, his daughter. See the comments section at the end of this post for details. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- The world's biggest newspaper publisher seems powerless to stop the slide in circulation at The Record of Woodland Park and NorthJersey.com.

In 2021 -- 5 years after Gannet Co. bought the prize-winning daily newspaper founded in Hackensack and its website -- circulation of both fell to only 39,683 daily and 48,684 on Sunday, according to the media company's annual report, filed last week.

That is a shocking development given the numbers at the end of 2016, when circulation of The Record and NorthJersey.com stood at 235,681 daily and 147,609 on Sunday

That includes circulation of affiliated publications  like the Herald News and the weekly Hackensack Chronicle.

Dramatic changes

A year later, at the end of 2017, the precipitous slide began: 

Circulation of The Record and its website dropped to only 91,032 daily and 97,149 on Sundays.

Meanwhile, in the first 8 months or so after Gannett acquired North Jersey Media Group in July 2016, about 350 employees were laid off and pay was frozen.

Survivors wake up

But it wasn't until 2021 that survivors of the bloodletting formed a union called The Record Guild to bargain with Gannett, which continues to deny them raises.

The vote in The Record newsroom to form the union was 59-4.

The union's total membership is not known, but includes employees at NorthJersey.com, The Daily Record of Parsippany-Troy Hills and the New Jersey Herald of Newton.

In its annual report, Gannett said that only about 17 percent of is 13,800 employees in the United Sates are represented by labor unions.

Change, change, change

At the end of 2021, according to the annual report, The Record and NorthJersey.com of "Bergen, New Jersey" were listed in 11th place among Gannett's major publications, led by USA Today, one place lower than at the end of 2020.

But when The Record was acquired in 2016, it stood in third place among Gannett newspapers after USA Today and the Detroit Free Press.

Gannett's annual report for 2021 lists a total of 9 daily newspapers, 14 weeklies and 2 production facilities in its New Jersey portfolio.

Corporate revenue

The amount of circulation is the primary factor in the pricing of advertising space, meaning Gannett likely has had to reduce how much it charges for ads in The Record, Herald News and on North Jersey.com, reducing corporate revenue.

Circulation also fell after Gannett editors cut the amount of local news even further after buying The Record in 2016, and then switched to a subscription-only model for NorthJersey.com in 2019. 

In January, The Record and Herald News told subscribers they will no longer receive home delivery of the Saturday edition.

The print edition of The Record may not be long for this world, judging by Gannett's annual report for 2021, which cites the company's "evolution from a more traditional print media business to a digitally focused content platform."

READ: Shit in driveway wasn't from dog walkers

READ: How Stephen Borg turned 

The Record into crap

 

FREE PAPER: The weekly Hackensack Chronicle, which has no staff and reprints stories and photos from The Record, is delivered free to Hackensack residents.

Big downsizing 

The Record had been based in Hackensack for more than 110 years when then-Publisher Stephen A. Borg executed the biggest downsizing in company history in 2008.

He targeted veteran employees who were earning higher salaries, then closed the headquarters building at 150 River St. in 2009 and moved The Record to a bank building overlooking Route 80 in Woodland Park.

Stepen Borg also ended separate Local sections for news from Bergen and Passaic counties, and Bergen readers often were inundated with news of Paterson and other Passaic communities.

After closing the building at 150 River St., Stephen Borg monetized The Record's parking lot by renting spaces to Hackensack University Medical Center and Bergen County.

North Jersey Media Group

In its 2016 annual report, Gannett and the USA Today Network hailed as a strategic acquisition purchase of North Jersey Media Group, the Borg family company that published The Record, Herald News, (201) magazine, NorthJersey.com and about 50 weeklies.

The Borg family held onto nearly 20 acres along River Street in Hackensack and the former headquarters building.

The headquarters, other NJMG buildings and a diner were torn down, and in mid-2020 Stephen Borg and his partners began construction of luxury apartments and retail along River Street.

A school election in November, an empty Main Street and other Hackensack views

A DESERTED MAIN STREET: Last Tuesday around 9:30 in the morning, I dropped off our 2010 Toyota Prius at the dealer in Hackensack for a synthetic oil and filter change, and walked over to Main Street. There were few cars and fewer pedestrians on the street. 

CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC: Cap Diner at 240 Main St. is on the ground floor of one of the luxury apartment buildings that was completed and occupied, as part of the city's downtown building boom. A total of about 3,500 apartments are being added. On Tuesday, a sign in the window said the diner was closed temporarily.

NO CIGAR: The diner's play on the phrase cup of joe -- coffee, which originated on U.S. navy ships -- caused me to wince. "Cap O' Joe"? Really?

SIGNS OF THE TIME: Above the awning of Sara & Sophia, an Ecuadorian restaurant at 287 Main St., you can see the sign of Bohemia, the Colombian restaurant that once occupied the space. Below, photos of Ecuadorian specialties.

 

Voters lose say on size of tax levy

to support local education 

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- With the move of the April school election to November, the more than 22,000 registered voters in the city are losing their chance to accept or reject the proposed budget for the city's schools that is funded by nearly half of their local  property taxes.

Such a rejection would send the proposal to the City Council, which could review it, and accept it or make cuts.

Never mind.

There are an overwhelming number of stupid, lazy and apathetic voters in Hackensack, and many of them don't even know they once had a right to challenge the spending plan of the city's Board of Education.

As a result, since I first started voting in Hackensack school elections in 2008, the proposed school budget has usually been approved by only a few hundred registered voters every April.

Shockingly low turnout

Here's what I reported about the 2020 school election:

The actual number of ballots returned in the May 12, 2020, Hackensack school board election totaled 3,071 and 3 more were blank.

Still, that was far more ballots than was cast in the 2019 (1,915 ballots) or 2018 (1,638 ballots) school board elections, when voters could go to the polls or vote by mail-in ballot.

The May 12, 2020, election was by mail-in ballot only, and that apparently raised the turnout significantly. The election was delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The proposed 2020-21 Hackensack school budget was $125.8 million before federal and state aid, grants and entitlements. 

The $85 million tax levy to support the school budget passed, as it has in all of the years I've lived in Hackensack, as residents again seemed to say we want to pay higher property taxes to support our local schools, 1,189 yes votes to 693 no votes.

School taxes are roughly 45% of your local property tax bill. 

School officials said the 2021-22 budget represents an increase of only 1% for taxpayers. 

 

2021 SCHOOL ELECTION BALLOT: The official mail-in ballot for the Nov. 2 general election contains not one but two ballots listing candidates and two public questions, above and below. Hackensack school board candidates are listed on the flip side of the ballot listing candidates for governor and lieutenant governor, state Senate and Assembly, Bergen County sheriff, and county clerk and commissioners, once known as freeholders and often derided as "freeloaders." 

EARLY VOTING: Registered voters in Bergen County may vote early from Oct. 23-31 at locations in nine communities, including the county administration building at One Bergen County Plaza in Hackensack. Click on the state's Voter Information Portal for more information.

Is that all there is?

As a resident of Hackensack, my stroll last Tuesday along Main Street and then to my home in the Fairmount section was a bit underwhelming.

Yes. Apartment construction seems to be everywhere on or near Main Street, which has finally been converted to 2-way traffic, but few of the buildings have been completed, there hasn't been much change in the local dining scene and foot traffic on Main Street is low.

I noticed a new restaurant on State Street -- Shami Falafel -- and my wife said she saw a spot for ramen preparing to open toward the border with South Hackensack.

El Turco Grill, a Turkish restaurant, opened on Main Street next to the Johnson Public Library last year, replacing an Argentinian spot.

Print House development

One of the bigger apartment projects in Hackensack is going up on River Street, replacing the landmark headquarters of The Record and North Jersey Media Group, and former Record Publisher Stephen A. Borg is a partner in the development.

I'm not sure if Borg was responsible for marketing the project as "Print House," which is a textile-printing factory.

"Printing House" would have been more accurate, given the history of local journalism and the many years The Record was printed there.

Nevertheless, the development's website says it is "designed to make headlines" and represents a "new record in Hackensack living."

I'm laughing out loud.

The Borgs ditch journalism

As publisher of The Record, succeeding his father, Stephen Borg's journalism credentials were suspect, but as a bean counter, he engineered the biggest downsizing in The Record's history in 2008 and the move to Woodland Park in 2009. 

In 2016, the Borg family sold The Record and the rest of North Jersey Media Group's daily and weekly newspapers and (201) magazine to Gannett Co. for nearly $40 million in cash.

But they retained ownership of nearly 20 acres along River Street, including The Record's headquarters and a nearby diner, both of which were torn down.

The Borgs had the last laugh -- all the way to the bank.

After Gannett took over, more than 350 employees were laid off or took buyouts.

Click on this Eye on The Record post from July 2020, when construction of the Print House apartments began. 

Repairs on the USS Ling have the potential of floating WWII sub in Hackensack River

A model of a Balao-class World War II submarine shows how much of the USS Ling isn't visible, below. The Ling -- damaged by Superstorm Sandy in 2012 and flooded through a rust hole -- is now stuck in the mud and muck of the Hackensack River. 

A group of submarine enthusiasts, some of whom are affiliated with a proposed naval museum on the Ohio River in Louisville, Ky., have enlisted active-duty sailors and corporate support to repair the Ling and eventually tow it out of New Jersey.

Sailors from Groton naval base

join volunteer effort to save boat

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Volunteers and active-duty sailors have breathed new life into the USS Ling, a storm-damaged and flooded World War II submarine that needs a new home.

The biggest accomplishment since a rescue effort was launched in mid-September are repairs to the ballast tanks, and a low-pressure ballast blow that expelled all of the mud inside the sub, which is stuck in the muck of the Hackensack River.

This landlubber's understanding is that a submarine's ballast tanks are flooded when the crew wants to dive, and then air expels the water, bringing the boat to the surface.

"She didn't float," said Lewis Palmer, a spokesman for the volunteers and a founding member of a proposed Louisville Naval Museum, a non-profit in Kentucky, where the Ling would be towed when seaworthy.

"She's still pretty much stuck in the mud," he said in a telephone interview.

But Palmer believes repairs to the ballast tanks eventually will allow the Ling to be floated and towed down the Hackensack River.

Submariners pitch in

Sailors from Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton, Conn., also repaired a 3-inch rust hole that allowed river water to flood the Ling, Palmer said.

The hole, repaired at low tide, was located "under the signal-flare ejector tube" on the port or left side in the aft or rear section of the Ling, he said. 

Palmer estimated that 14 sailors put in a total of 100 hours working on the boat with the permission of the property owner, Stephen A. Borg, former publisher of The Record.

Palmer praised Borg's cooperation, noting the newspaper publisher-turned-apartment developer was happy to hear about the volunteer effort to move the Ling, and always gave access to the fenced and locked site off of River Street when asked.

Other support

The sailors also were able to borrow a compressor to test the sub's ballast tanks from the Eastern Concrete Materials plant in Bogota, just across the river.

The save the Ling effort also received donations of Purple Power cleaner/degreaser and Blaster lubricant from the manufacturers.

And, Palmer said, American Commercial Barge Line in Jeffersonville, Ind., which is near the proposed naval museum in Louisville, has offered to tow the Ling about halfway there, a job that would normally cost $5 million.

The Ling, which is just under 312 feet long, was one of the U.S. Navy's Balao-class submarines built during World War II, and with 120 completed, it was the most successful.

Palmer, 50, an Army veteran who lives in Indiana, traces his love of  submarines to the lore he heard from his grandfather, who served on three Balao-class submarines, but not the Ling.

Lewis Palmer, a founding member of the proposed Louisville Naval Museum on the Ohio River, discussing plans for the USS Ling with a reporter on Sept. 14.

Submarine Memorial Association

You can find a history of the USS Ling on Weird N.J. or Wikipedia.

The Ling was donated to the Submarine Memorial Association and moved to 78 River St. in Hackensack -- Borg Park -- in January 1973, when restoration work "to near mint condition" began, according to Weird N.J.

The gangplank that allowed the public to visit the sub was swept away during Superstorm Sandy in 2012, and the New Jersey Naval Museum closed a few years later.

Palmer, spokesman for the volunteer group preparing the Ling for the move to Kentucky, said the head of the Submarine Memorial Association won't talk to him, and that is hindering interior work.

Read an earlier post about the USS Ling:

Group hopes final voyage will be to Kentucky

North Jersey residents turn thumbs down on editor who says they must pay for news

The front page of The Record of Woodland Park on June 4, 2018, before reporter John Cichowski put readers out of their misery by retiring. He wrote The Road Warrior column for more than 14 years. The so-called commuting column focused almost exclusively on drivers.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- The executive editor of The Record today formally announced a policy that had been apparent to readers of NorthJersey.com for many months:

"A portion of our reporting will be available only to subscribers," Daniel Sforza said on NorthJersey.com -- the paper's website -- via a link from Twitter.

"These will be labeled 'For Subscribers' on NorthJersey.com and our mobile apps," said Forza, a former Record assignment editor who rose to executive editor of The Record of Woodland Park and these other Gannett properties:

North Jersey.com, The Herald News, The Daily Record in Parsippany; The Journal News, LoHud.com, and The Poughkeepsie Journal, the last three in New York State.

The job came with a modest raise, but unlimited mileage reimbursement, some wags have suggested.

Reader reaction

"So the number of readers you do have, which I can assure you is very limited, will continue to plummet just like CNN's ratings," Johnny B Good @mastrfriendship replied on Twitter. "An interesting strategy for an already failed news source."

Apple Ridge Something @AppleRidgeGuy wanted to know, "Do your 300 ads per page still pop up for subscribers?"

"I'll guess I'll u follow you now. Bye, said G.O. @bankerdad73. 

"$7.99 a month for a digital only subscription is way too much so sadly I guess I won't be seeing your posts," tweeted Paige Ryan @paigeonedesigns.

"Bye," said Pinky @NJPinkSky, showing an emoji with a waving hand.

Read: Tombstones for great local journalism

Read: The Record and NorthJersey.com

 lose even more readers in 2018

Layoffs, cuts in local news

In his statement, Sforza invokes the glorious history of The Record without mentioning the layoffs of more than 350 employees after the Gannett Co. paid nearly $40 million in cash to the Borg family for North Jersey Media Group in July 2016.

Then-Publisher Stephen A. Borg had engineered the biggest downsizing in The Record's history in 2008, then abandoned Hackensack in 2009, moving more than 1,000 employees to Woodland Park and Rockaway Township.

Gannett not only cut the payroll. Local news pages in the print edition dwindled and ads increased. 

The Record no longer runs an editorial everyday. And as the Local news section shrank, the Sports section was expanded.

A few weeks ago, The Record included an 8-page Sports section and only 3 pages of local news, much of it from Passaic County and of little interest to the heart of the readership in Bergen County.

Sforza's statement fails to acknowledge that he has helped Gannett turn The Record into a rag:

"In a few short months, The Record will be celebrating its 125th year of publication.

"That's more than a century of covering North Jersey, from its time as a rural farming community to the building of the George Washington Bridge to its place as a retail and residential hub in the shadow of New York City.

"Over that time, we've worked to deliver information that's important to you, to your families, to your businesses and to your future.

"The Record still does all of that, landing on newsstands and in your driveways each day. But it now does so much more.

"First and foremost, it's the storytelling engine behind NorthJersey.com, our virtual home where you can get not only our award-winning articles, but view fantastic videos, photo galleries, newsletters and more.

"That shift, which brings local news to you around the clock on your mobile phones, laptops and tablets, has also changed how we support the journalism that is so intrinsic to the way we live and to our democracy.

"Now more than ever before we are relying on our subscribers to support our news gathering.

"In recognition of that growing reliance on our readers’ support, a portion of our reporting will be available only to subscribers, starting Tuesday. This will include many of our exclusive stories unavailable from other news sources. These will be labeled “For Subscribers” on NorthJersey.com and our mobile apps.

"As savvy readers, you have no doubt noticed that we have been scaling back on the number of free stories available each month on our digital site. That's because we value our journalism and we know that you value it as well.

"Often, readers will tell me that they get their news through Facebook or Twitter. But behind the stories you find on social media networks are organizations like NorthJersey.com and The Record, where hard working journalists are doing the on-the-ground reporting to get to the bottom of a scandal, tell you about the new restaurant opening up, or analyzing the latest Yankees victory.

"It's important to realize that. And it's important to acknowledge that the content provided through social media is not generated by social media. 

"The success of local media will increasingly depend on support from our most loyal readers — those of you who subscribe to The Record and NorthJersey.com. 

"Many of you may already have subscriptions to The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal. But only The Record and NorthJersey.com cover the towns you live in, the schools in your neighborhood, and the high school athletics your sons and daughters participate in.

"In addition, as New Jersey is comprised of more than 500 towns, it's important to keep watch on what is happening in our local governments. Only reporters from The Record and NorthJersey.com are keeping tabs on our politicians, our school boards, our downtowns, our health organizations, public transit agencies and the environment.

"This type of reporting is critical to a functioning democracy. It's critical to watching how your tax dollars are spent. And it's critical to how you make decisions that are in the best interest of your family, your business and your career....

"We have also returned coverage of the New York Rangers to our sports pages, adding it to our already robust coverage of the Devils, Knicks, Yankees, Mets, Giants and Jets. And we do it like no other.

"In the coming months, we will be adding searchable online databases of everything from state employee salaries to tax data to education statistics.

"None of this would be possible without our subscribers....

"To get all your digital benefits, you just need to log in our activate your digital account. 

Dan Sforza (Photo: Tariq Zehawi/NorthJersey.com)

"As a lifelong resident of North Jersey, I know how passionate we all are about the role The Record plays in our lives. And I'm grateful to everyone who supports our efforts.

"Again, thank you, and please don't hesitate to reach out with your suggestions for coverage."

Daniel Sforza is the executive editor of the The Record, NorthJersey.com, The Herald News, The Journal News, LoHud.com, The Daily Record and The Poughkeepsie Journal. He can be reached at sforza@northjersey.com, on Twitter @sforzadan. Subscribe to our independent reporting that supports our local communities and our democracy.

Shit in driveway wasn't from dog walkers: The Record was delivered to us by mistake

READERS GET THE SHAFT: A report on the shutting down of nuclear reactors across the United States started on Page 1 of The Record of Woodland Park on Sunday and covered 5 full newspaper pages. Included were the bios of the 5 reporters for Gannett publications who worked on it. Loud yawns could be heard across northern New Jersey.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- The dog owners in my Fairmount neighborhood don't always do a good job of cleaning up after their pets, as  we can see from the occasional turd in the grass in front of our house.

On Sunday, however, the biggest turd I've ever seen was left in our driveway: 

The Record of Woodland Park, folded inside a plastic bag, was delivered to us in error.

I stopped subscribing to The Record more than a year ago (or was it two), but see the daily paper occasionally at the hospital where I volunteer.

So, I looked at the first Sunday paper I've seen in a long time with a critical eye, confirming once again how former Publisher Stephen Borg and Gannett have brought this once-great local newspaper to its knees.

The front page was wrapped in an ad for hearing aids, a desperate bid for revenue that was started by Borg years before the family unloaded North Jersey Media Group on Gannett in July 2016.

State budget news?

A week before Governor Murphy is supposed to sign the state budget, a battle over renewal of the millionaires tax continues to rage in the state Legislature, but there were no news stories about it in the Sunday paper.

As far as I know, The Record has never explored the millionaires tax as an issue, only as a showdown between the state's most powerful Democrats

The rest of the first section is filled only with international and national news -- a colossal waste of space in a local daily newspaper.

Readers go nuclear

In a desperate bid to grab readers attention, the nuclear power plant opus included a story on Page 12A under the headline:

"This could

affect your

wallet and

your health" 

As with most readers, I would imagine, my eyelids grew heavy.

The lead reporter on the nuclear plant piece was Thomas C. Gambito, a former Record reporter now with the Rockland/Westchester Journal News.

Debra Vial, Gambito's wife, was an assignment editor at The Record.

Now, she is the communications director in Paramus for Suez North America, the water company that levies hundreds of thousands of dollars in public fire protection fees on Hackensack and many others towns and cities.

Vial and other Suez employees have ignored repeated requests from this blogger, who also worked at The Record as a reporter and copy editor, for the fees paid by other municipalities.

Local news?

Sunday's 8-page Local section included 3 pages of obituaries or paid death notices, and a full-page ad.

The lead story on 1L was about gay cops (the headlines included the words "in New Jersey").

But there was not a single story from the 86 towns in Bergen and Passaic counties about municipal government, spending or policies.

Other sections

On the Better Living cover, staffer Rebecca King appeared to rewrite two news releases rating Newark Liberty International Airport as "the worst in America," but claiming the air hub is "best for foodies."

No prices were given, lest readers experience the same sticker shock of travelers who don't bring their own food, and have to buy some of the most overpriced fare in the world.

Better Living also included a USA Today travel article warning Americans going to Mexico to "proceed with caution."

Opinion

Remember the New Jersey budget battle?

In the Opinion section, Governor Murphy appeared as a guest columnist, noting the millionaires tax was passed five times by Democratic Legislatures in the eight years before he took office [and vetoed by then-Governor Christie].

The Record also has endorsed renewal of the millionaires tax. Murphy's column appeared under this headline:

"Why state budget must

put middle class first"

I'm sure almost no one read the piece on the front of Opinion on Sunday by burned-out Columnist Mike Kelly on failed legal pot laws in New Jersey and New York.

Kelly's been boring readers to tears for decades.

The rest of the paper, including Sports, went immediately into the recycling bin.

Read: Tombstones for great local journalism

STRAIGHT TO RECYCLING: Many of the sections of The Record on Sunday were suitable only for the recycling bin.

First, the Borgs screwed Hackensack; now, they've turned their backs on sub veterans

The USS Ling, stuck in the muck of the Hackensack River, in April 2016. The wealthy Borg family have washed their hands of saving the World War II submarine from being scrapped or sunk for an artificial reef. Below, the Ling in a photo made today, weeks after vandals flooded the vessel with Hackensack River water.

Editor's note: On Sept. 14, 2019, a group of submarine enthusiasts launched an effort to repair the USS Ling and move the submarine to a proposed naval museum on the Ohio River in Kentucky. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- The Borgs are back in Hackensack. 

The onetime owners of The Record are planning to develop nearly 20 acres along River Street -- land they held onto after selling the family publishing company and its many daily and weekly newspapers to Gannett for $39.3 million in cash in July 2016, and laughing all the way to the bank.

But they've washed their hands of the USS Ling, the World War II submarine that has been tied up to their property since 1974 under a $1-year-lease with the New Jersey Naval Museum.

Then-Publisher Stephen A. Borg of Tenafly ended that lease in 2016, claiming the sub wasn't on family property.

A few weeks ago, vandals "cut locks and opened hatches to flood the submarine" with Hackensack River water, The Record reported in a story that was reprinted in the Hackensack Chronicle on Aug. 24.

Reporters Melanie Anzidel and Rodrigo Torrejon made no effort to contact the Borg family for comment about the vandalism or the sub's future.

The damage may be beyond repair, they reported.

Abandoned Hackensack

No one has ever measured the full economic and psychological impact of Stephen Borg's money saving decision to shut down the 150 River St. headquarters of The Record in 2009, and essentially abandon Hackensack, where the once-great local daily newspaper had prospered for more than 110 years.

Most employees were scattered to a Rockaway Township  plant, where The Record and Herald News had been printed since 2006; and to cramped offices in a Garret Mountain office building overlooking Route 80 in Woodland Park. 

Then, Hackensack restaurants like Naturally Good and other businesses on and near Main Street closed, and those that remained open, like Solari's, a onetime Borg favorite, struggled.

The decline in Hackensack news was easy to see, as was the increasing focus on Passaic County and Paterson, even though those stories were of little interest to the majority of readers in Bergen County, one of the wealthiest in New Jersey.

To save money, The Record stopped printing separate Local sections for news from Bergen and Passaic counties, cramming everything into one thin edition.

Downsizing

In 2008, Borg triggered the biggest downsizing in The Record's history, targeting the oldest and highest-paid newsroom and photography employees.

Then, the Borgs delivered the final blow, selling North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record, to Gannett, which eventually laid off more than 350 NJMG employees.

See: Gannett admits 

circulation dropped dramatically

See: Borgs take money and run,

 staffers brace for Gannett's ax

See: Editors do their best
 to screw old people

Luxury units

On Aug. 3, the weekly Hackensack Chronicle, which no longer has its own staff, reprinted another story from The Record, reporting the buildings at 150 River St. will be taken down this month.

Employees of the Vannuzzi Group, a demolition and recycling company based in Kinnelon, have been stripping the buildings since late April.

The property, which is in a flood zone, was assessed for $24,947,400, and Macromedia Inc., a Borg family company, has been paying $790,053.40 annually in taxes, according to NJParcels.com.

The project includes 600 luxury residential units -- 100 less than city planners had envisioned -- a public plaza and river walk, and retail along River Street, The Record's story said, quoting a Macromedia spokesman.

Poor editing

The story, by Melanie Anzidel, is an example of how poorly The Record is edited more than 2 years after the Gannett purchase:

"The former headquarters of The Record newspaper ...," the story begins.

But the reporter apparently was worried readers wouldn't know what "former" means, so she added the headquarters were "once housed at 150 River St. in Hackensack."

Here's the lead paragraph in its redundant entirety:

"The former headquarters of The Record newspaper, once housed at 150 River St. in Hackensack, is slated for demolition."

The Ling

Bob Sommer, identified as a Macromedia spokesman, said the New Jersey Naval Museum was "evicted," and agreed to vacate by Aug. 14.

But, Sommer added, the submarine "is not part of the redevelopment project, and its removal, which ... could cost millions, is not part of the eviction," The Record said.

"This was a despicable act," Sommer said of the flooding of the submarine, and the theft of plaques valued at more than $10,000, adding he hopes police make arrests and that the suspects are convicted and punished "to the fullest extent allowed."

3 developers

Macromedia is expected to partner with the Hampshire Real Estate Cos. and Russo Development to build on The Record site.

Jon F. Hanson, chairman of Hampshire, and Malcolm A. Borg of Englewood, former chairman of North Jersey Media Group, are close friends who once co-owned a private jet.

See: The Record's ghosts will be buried

 under new housing