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.

The Record's Local section cheats Bergen, and editors promote lots of unhealthy food

PASSAIC COUNTY NEWS: Local, the section of The Record containing municipal news, was filled with Passaic County stories on Dec. 11, cheating readers in Bergen County, where the newspaper flourished for more than 110 years and where the majority of readers live. Instead of a guide to what was inside the section, an ad appeared above the masthead.

PATERSON DATELINES: Renovation of Lambert Castle on Garret Mountain in Paterson led the Local section on Dec. 11.

MORE PATERSON NEWS: A second Paterson story appeared on L-1 on Dec. 11. The 2 other stories on the Local front were about Ridgewood and Leonia schools.

Writers don't appear eager 

to steer us to healthy choices

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- On Dec. 11, The Record published yet another local news section that cheated Bergen County readers.

Even before the newspaper was taken over by Gannett in 2016, The Record's owners decided publishing a single Local section would save them hundreds of thousands of dollars in newsprint costs every year.

The decision to fold separate Bergen and Passaic sections condemned the majority of readers, who live in 70 Bergen County towns, to slog through story after story about Paterson and the rest of Passaic County, even as Hackensack, Teaneck and Englewood news went missing.

And so it was last Wednesday:

CLIFTON NEWS: On Page 2L, a story reported Clifton planners were to hear a proposal for 300 "housing units." A second story on the page reported the "rescue" of a deer "with a plastic pumpkin stuck on its head," according to the headline.

THE TOWN, NOT THE DEPARTMENT STORE: The big news leading Page 3L was from Bloomingdale, the Passaic County town, not the department store in Hackensack. 

WAYNE, PATERSON AND ESSEX COUNTY NEWS: The rest of 3L included a photo essay on a model train display in Carlstadt, more news about Paterson, a fire in Wayne and the homicide of an unidentified "minor" in Newark.

MINOR KILLED: The story on the homicide contained few details. 

PATERSON POLITICAL NEWS: The story on a school board member in Paterson seeking a City Council seat has absolutely no redeeming value for Bergen County readers. "Redmon" and "Jackson" aren't recognizable names in a headline for Bergen readers.

UBIQUITOUS WEATHER PHOTO: Even the weather photo on Page 6L, the fourth page of local news in the section, was taken in Paterson, which is closer to The Record's newsroom in Woodland Park than Hackensack, Fort Lee and other Bergen County towns. So, covering Passaic County saves Gannett even more time and money, but robs Bergen readers.

Pushing sugar, mystery meat

The same Dec. 11 edition of The Record included a Better Living section cover story by the fashionably slim food editor, Esther Davidowitz, and food writer Rebecca King with a hard sell on "desserts to pick up for the holidays."

The story on "deliciously gooey, royally luxurious, beautifully presented" desserts certainly came as a shock to diabetics or other readers who are watching their intake of sugar and butter -- both of which can clog heart arteries -- not to mention eggs and whipped cream.

How many of the 13 bakeries listed are advertisers or potential advertisers to which Davidowitz and King are sucking up?

Davidowitz wrote "The 7 Best Dishes of 2019" in the December 2019 edition of (201) magazine, also published by Gannett's North Jersey Media Group.

Four of the 7 dishes included meat, but Davidowitz is silent on whether that pork and beef were naturally raised without antibiotics and other harmful additives.

I hope I'm not the only one who believes food writers shouldn't knowingly or unknowingly promote unhealthy food.

On Dec. 6, the cover story in The Record's Better Living section explored "food options" at Nordstrom, but the writer was sent to the department store in Manhattan, not the one in Paramus, the shopping mall capital of New Jersey.

Read: SUGAR SHOCK: 

Readers are overdosing on desserts

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.

Bergen readers of The Record go begging when a lot of news is from Passaic County

Paramus was the focus of a front page story in The Record on Wednesday.

Retired NJMG employees receive 

notice of pension plan shortfall

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK -- Paramus residents must have swelled with pride when they saw a story about their borough on The Record's front page.

But Wednesday's "exclusive" report, which covered more than half of Page 1, had nothing to do with borough affairs.

Staff Writer Melanie Anzidei, the retailing reporter, was raving about a plan to turn the region's biggest shopping center into "something Paramus has never seen, a brand-new downtown" with luxury apartments "a stone's throw from their [residents'] favorite stores."

Passaic County news

But there was plenty of local news inside Wednesday's paper -- if you lived in Passaic County or were interested in sensational trials, crime or crashes.

Since Gannett Co. took over The Record of Woodland Park in July 2016, news of the towns in Bergen County, where the majority of readers live, has been harder and harder to find.

Stories from Paterson, Wayne and other Passaic County towns, as well as crime reports, often crowd out Bergen news in the paper's Local section, as they did on Wednesday.

No editorial

The 12-page Local section included only three and half pages of news and feature stories from Bergen and Passaic counties. 

The rest of the section was devoted to obituaries, Business and Opinion, though no editorial appeared.

Readers have responded by abandoning the print edition and NorthJersey.com in droves, as Gannett's annual report revealed:

The Record and NorthJersey.com

 lose even more readers in 2018

The absence of a daily editorial or two also is puzzling.

More Passaic news

The Local section a week earlier, on April 26, was led by a sensational trial, but the headline had readers scratching their heads:

"Sting's court docs

 reveal graphic talks"

The reference wasn't, as many undoubtedly thought,  to Sting, the English musician, singer, songwriter and actor. 

Instead, the reference was to a tri-state dating app sting that led to the arrest and Hackensack trial of 16 alleged sexual predators from three states.

Five Passaic County stories appeared in the section.

Pension plan

The North Jersey Media Group pension plan for employees and beneficiaries is now called the Fourth Edition Inc. Pension Plan.

A notice I received in the mail said the funded percentage of the plan as of Jan. 1, 2019, is 73.24%.

"Since the funded percentage of the plan is below 80%, certain restrictions apply," the notice said, but "if you are retired or a beneficiary currently receiving payment from the plan, you will not be affected."

This feature about a poetry reading in Paterson was one of three stories from Silk City that appeared on Page 3L of Wednesday's Local section along with a story from Wayne, below. Much of the Paterson news is credited to the Paterson Press.

The Record and NorthJersey.com lose even more readers in 2018, Gannett says

The Record of Woodland Park and the Hackensack Chronicle, a free weekly that no longer has its own staff, and reprints stories and photos from the daily newspaper. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Readers are fleeing The Record of Woodland Park and NorthJersey.com as if they were a sinking ship.

As of Dec. 31, 2018, daily circulation of The Record was 68,630, compared to 91,032 at the end of 2017.

The numbers include visitors to The Record's digital news site, NorthJersey.com, Gannett said in its 2018 Annual Report.

Sunday readership was 90,352, including visitors to NorthJersey.com, compared to 97,149 at the end of 2017.

That's a loss of 22,402 readers daily and 6,797 readers on Sunday in 2018.

'Bergen, N.J.'

The Record is listed 8th among Gannett's "major publications and their affiliated digital platforms." 

That means the once-great local daily newspaper published in Hackensack is ahead (in daily readers) of only The Des Moines Register and the Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester, N.Y., but behind both in Sunday circulation.

The annual report lists the location of The Record as "Bergen, New Jersey."

Under bylines in the print edition, The Record is referred to as "North Jersey Record."

End of 2016

At the end of 2016, readership of The Record and NorthJersey.com was 235,681 daily and 147,609 on Sundays, according to the 2016 Annual Report issued by Gannett, the nation's largest newspaper chain.

Gannett bought North Jersey Media Group from the Borg family in July 2016 for $39.3 million in cash.

NJMG published The Record, Herald News, (201) magazine, North Jersey.com and about 50 weeklies.

Layoffs

More than 350 NJMG employees were laid off eventually.

Retaining such veteran columnists as Mike Kelly, Charles Stile and John Cichowski apparently had no effect on keeping readers.

The error-prone Cichowski retired this year after writing the Road Warrior column for more than 15 years. 

Meanwhile, platforms for local news, including TAPIntoHackensack, may be drawing readers away from The Record and NorthJersey.com, which have cut municipal news drastically.

Read: Gannett admits circulation

 dropped dramatically after 2016 takeover

Read: What the Borgs started at The Record

 Gannett finishes with a vengeance

N.J. bill hopes to revive local journalism, community information, civic engagement

HONEY, THEY SHRUNK THE NEWSPAPER: The weekly Hackensack Chronicle, part of the USA Today Network, once had its own staff. Now, it is smaller and just re-prints news stories written by reporters at The Record of Woodland Park, one of the eight New Jersey dailies owned by Gannett. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- The Civic Info Bill would create a public fund to "invest millions of dollars in ... projects designed to strengthen local news coverage" in New Jersey, according to FreePress.net.

That certainly would resonate with long-suffering readers of The Record, the Woodland Park daily that has drastically reduced local news since Gannett took over in July 2016.

The bill is backed by 14 state lawmakers -- including the Democratic leaders of both legislative houses  -- and thousands of New Jersey residents who have participated in public forums.

If passed and signed into law by Governor Murphy, the bill would create the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium, a nonprofit "that would provide funding to support quality journalism in New Jersey, promote promising media startups and other efforts meant to better inform communities," according to Free Press.

All funds would be donated.

See: Why the Civic Info Bill is such a big deal

See: Gannett admits circulation

 of The Record dropped dramatically

Demolition is near for landmark building where The Record and NJMG once thrived

The building at 150 River St. in Hackensack, where The Record and parent company North Jersey Media Group operated until 2009, is being prepared for demolition. The fourth-floor newsroom of the once-great local daily newspaper afforded a sweeping view of the Meadowlands, an elevated section of the New Jersey Turnpike and the Manhattan skyline.

After moving The Record and NJMG to Woodland Park in 2009, the Borg family leased parking spaces in Hackensack to Bergen County and Hackensack University Medical Center. Printing of The Record and Herald News were moved to an NJMG printing plant in Rockaway Township in 2006. 

 -- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

The end is near for the landmark Hackensack building that once served as headquarters for The Record and publisher North Jersey Media Group.

A cyclone fence encircles the building at 150 River St. and two other structures, and employees of a demolition and recycling company were seen working there today.

The city of Hackensack adopted a redevelopment plan for the property and adjacent land that includes up to 700 residential units, 70,000 square feet of retail and a 1.35-acre hotel site.

They would transform the abandoned buildings into a "mixed-use, pedestrian-oriented riverfront project" to support the revitalization effort downtown, city officials said.

The project will be the terminus of Atlantic Street, providing a direct link from Hackensack University Medical Center past the Performing Arts Center and Atlantic Street Park to the Hackensack River, the officials said.

Demolition 

At the city Building Department, an employee said I had to fill out an Open Public Records Act request for information on whether a demolition permit has been issued for the property, and when the buildings are scheduled to be torn down.

The Borg family retained ownership of 19.7 acres along River Street after selling "certain assets" of North Jersey Media Group to the Gannett Co. in July 2016 for about $39.3 million in cash.

Those assets included The Record and Herald News, about 30 weekly newspapers and (201) magazine.

In addition to 150 River St., the land includes 80 River St., and 62 and 70 Bridge St. (Heritage Diner, U.S.S. Ling and former naval museum).

The 150 River St. property, which is in a flood zone, was assessed for $24,947,400, and Macromedia Inc. has been paying $790,053.40 annually in taxes, according to the njparcels.com website.

This 3-story section of the building at 150 River St. contained the executive offices at the end of a hallway decorated with art. A private dining room and then-Publisher Malcolm A. Borg's personal chef were used to entertain the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and other guests.

North Korea summit may be a distraction from mountainous breasts Trump adores

Adult film star Stormy Daniels is suing President Trump so she can make, uh, a clean breast of her affair with the New York billionaire after Melania Trump gave birth to their son, Barron. Melania is the stormy weather forecaster in this sendup from cartoonist Dave Granlund.

Cartoonist Granlund satirizing the war of words between North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and President Trump over which leader has a bigger nuclear "button."

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

We've survived another insane week of the Trump presidency -- with visions of an adult film star's enormous, surgically enlarged breasts and a possible summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

Donald J. Trump would be the first sitting U.S. president to meet with a North Korean leader in hopes of obtaining a nuclear-disarmament pledge.

But former President Jimmy Carter obtained a nuclear disarmament agreement with Un's grandfather in 1994, according to ABC News.

And in 2009, former President Bill Clinton also went to North Korea at a time when tensions were high over its nuclear program, and helped free two journalists.

Just a distraction?

Trump's visit isn't a sure thing, but he's got such a mess on his hands at home it may not matter.

And all the coverage of a possible summit is distracting from last week's real news:

The probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election is intensifying, and could result in an obstruction of justice indictment against Trump as one former aide after another is charged or cooperates with Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

And details of Trump's affair with a big-breasted porn star starting in 2006, after son Barron was born, are spilling out even as she sues to be allowed to tell all, including "still images" of what satirist Bill Maher speculates is Trump's "junk." 

Meanwhile, many are asking why Trump isn't applying sanctions Congress already OK'd against Russian dictator Vladimir Putin for his war crimes in Syria, and his recent, Kim Jong Un-like boast of having "invincible" nuclear weapons that could destroy U.S. defenses.

See: Trump isn't the only cause of stress in our lives

See:'Do You Remember When Love Was King?'

These doctored photos of President Trump and Kim Jong Un, above and below, appeared on Twitter (@bornmiserable).

N.J. environment

As today's front-page story in The Record shows, the environment in North Jersey went to hell while Chris Christie was governor from January 2010 to January 2018.

Now, the Woodland Park daily's environmental reporters are spending all their time on toxic disasters in Pompton Lake and Edgewater, the latter just across the Hudson River from Manhattan.

"Elevated levels of  a chemical that can be harmful to humans ... has been wafting in the air from the Quanta Superfund site in Edgewater for nine months [italics added] as workers continue to entomb a century's worth of pollution on the property closely surrounded by homes and businesses, Staff Writer Scott Fallon reports.

If the foul-smelling, potentially harmful air has been present for nine months, why is The Record just writing about it now?

Dysfunctional Englewood

The small city of Englewood has been mismanaged for decades.

Just look at the segregated elementary and middle schools; and high property taxes, despite revenue from the owners of million-dollar mansions on the East Hill, a small industrial area and hundreds of new apartments downtown and along Route 4.

Now, The Record leads today's Local front with a story under this headline:

"Englewood's 'dire' finances

 to be studied"

In the same sentence that quotes the "city manager," Englewood is referred to as a "borough" (1L).


Copy editors wanted

Readers eyes are rolling at another Mike Kelly piece that keeps them guessing on the meaning of the headline on today's Opinion front:

"It's time for a new plan

for Hudson rail tunnels"

Readers have to plow through thousands of words of background information on the Opinion front (1O) and the continuation page (4O) before Kelly reveals his solution in the last five paragraphs:

Appeal to the Port Authority to take over the project now that Trump has refused to fund the second attempt to replace the 100-year-old tunnels, which Christie initially killed in 2010.