The Record is leaving

[Editor]

The Record shifting staff from centralized office

[Editor]

Hackensack Finds its Mojo(s)

[BLeafe]

Anyone notice that the "Hackensack" sign on that page shows a population with 3 digits?

It's from Hackensack, MN.

[BLeafe]

Update: I emailed the writer about the sign, thinking he'd get a chuckle out of it and that'd be it.

He emailed me back and said he updated his post.

Something more familiar is there now.

[Editor]

Another American newspaper embraces mobile journalism
from: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/stephanie_gutmann/blog/2009/01/14/another_american_newspaper_embraces_mobile_journalism

You may not have heard of it, but the Bergen Record of Hackensack, New Jersey was once a star in the US journalism world.

A big, squashy, expensive, tree-consuming broadsheet (as opposed to a tabloid-sized newspaper), it was a one of those solid, respectable, integrity-filled papers that journalism students were instructed to read reverently.

When I was a student at Columbia University's graduate school of journalism, instructors talked about The Record in hushed tones and urged us to apply for our first "real" jobs there.  Even the fact that it was located in boring old New Jersey and not, for instance, sexy Miami or Los Angeles was supposed to add to its luster.  If you could bring out such a formidable product in bleak, highway and shopping-mall littered New Jersey you must really be digging deep to find good stories.

When we looked less than enthusiastic about applying to a paper in New Jersey we were gently reminded that it was one of the "farm teams" - to steal a term from baseball - for the New York Times and other members of the MSM firmament.  And indeed notable grads include Evan Thomas, who went on to become the lead writer of Newsweek and Martin Gottlieb who hopped to the New York Daily News, then the New York Times, and is now the editor of the International Herald Tribune (which is owned by the New York Times company).

Comes now the news that the Record will soon be downsized beyond recognition.  According to a veteran editor, the paper will soon be selling its headquarters of 40 years because it has become too expensive to operate and moving to scruffier digs.

All of the reporters will be rehired as "mobile reporters" - or "MoJos".  They will be "desk-less," expected to work from their homes and their cars, calling in their stories from cell phones or sending them in from the field from their lap tops.  A skeleton editing staff will remain behind in the new building to patch up, dust up, and pretty up their stories the best they can.

I found this news quite depressing at first, but the editor points out that "ironically this may result in better journalism."

Newsrooms feel like stimulating places but they can become quagmires as lazy reporters get in the habit of spending the entire day slouched at their desks, on the phone or email, gabbing with other reporters, and listlessly surfing the net. That's why American journalism has become polluted with endless "trend stories" constructed of a few anecdotes and bolstered with an "expert" or two (found via a quick Google search) who verifies that XYZ alarming trend is indeed "on the rise."  Written by people who may never have actually even seen the place they're writing about, they have a sterile, canned sound and often get stuff very wrong simply because so much of life has to be seen and felt and smelled and heard to be truly understood.  It's not what people to say to each other, after all, but how they say it that's important.

"This will get reporters out of the office," the editor says enthusiastically.  "They'll be on the street, talking to people, finding stories. They'll go to some of these meetings - school board meeting, community board meeting - and see the dynamics, and that could give their reports a whole new slant."

Maybe one can even learn not to wince at the term "MoJo."

[just watching]

How ironic, their departure will leave Hackensack with the "USS LING", which they famously evicted in June, 1988, but the submarine never left. And "The County Seat" will be left to rule the roost of the media world in Hackensack, hahaha.

I think The Record would have done better as a paper if it stopped using the newspaper to "PUSH" public opinion on various issues, and instead focussed on reporting the news.  They wound up turning people off, when every news story is half editorial, half news.  People were so tee'd off about it, that's part of the reason why The County Seat was founded. The Record certainly has an agenda for Hackensack, which is to foster an unravelling on all levels, especially political and socioeconomic, but even the traditional family is in their cross-hairs. People who are sick of the unravelling of all of society are those who are sick of The Record.

 In addition, I believe that The Record CONSCIOUSLY desires to hinder and hamper upscale economic development in downtown Hackensack, specifically because that would increase property values and increase their tax bill. That's why they weren't in favor of the County Jail moving out of Hackensack (1995 news), and they would love to be surrounded by homeless shelters, thrift shops, low-income housing, etc.

Good bye, and good riddance.

The Record was also outmanuevered by The Star Ledger, which had managed over the years to expand coverage even to extreme SE and SW New Jersey. They were able to gain a big presence in every County of New Jersey despite big competition from Philadelphia papers and once-rivals such as THe Asbury Park Press and the Woodbridge Tribune.  The Record, on the other hand, hasn't been able to expand out of extreme northern New Jersey, despite successfully expanding to Morris County.

Many of us who want Hackensack to grow and prosper will not miss The Record when they leave.  And chances are whatever is built there will bring in more jobs, more tax revenues, and more prestige for the City of Hackensack.  Anyone familiar with the Jersey City waterfront should have some idea of what is coming to that corner of Hackensack.  That's 30 acres up for redevelopment.

[Editor]

'The Record' to Vacate New Jersey Building in 2010

By Joe Strupp

Published: December 08, 2009 11:15 AM ET

NEW YORK The Record of Hackensack, N.J., which has been slowly relocating staff to its sister paper, the Herald News of Woodland Park, plans to completely vacate its main building at the end of 2010, according to an internal memo obtained by E&P.

The Dec. 3 memo, from North Jersey Media Group President Stephen Borg, stated that the paper intends to use another Hackensack location for some editorial and sales staff, but much of the operation would be moved to Woodland Park.

"They have been moving gradually for the past 18 months," company spokeswoman Linda Iceland said about the Hackensack staff when asked about the memo. But she said the memo finalized the date for when the relocation would be completed.

North Jersey Media Group, which owns both newspapers and numerous community weeklies, has about 1,200 total staffers, Iceland said.

The Herald News, formerly located in Passaic, moved to the Woodland Park location in 1999. In 2008, as the two papers began to share more coverage, staff from the Hackensack office began moving to the Woodland Park site, which also houses other North Jersey Media Group operations such as some community newspapers and some classified staff.

In February 2009, all of the top Record editors relocated to the Woodland Park site and news staffers began to work more and more out of 14 other company offices that house weekly newspapers or distribution centers. "Many were used by MoJos [mobile journalists]," Iceland said, referring to the growing practice of having reporters work primarily in the field with laptops, cell phones and other devices.

Iceland said no decisions had been made about the future of the main Hackensack office after it is vacated.


Borg's entire memo is below:

******************


Sent: Thursday, December 03, 2009 12:18 PM
To: NJMG All Employees
Subject: Hackensack Update

A message from President Stephen Borg:

We plan to vacate the main Hackensack building by December, 2010. In the month prior, we will occupy new space within the city primarily for sales and editorial personnel.

The timeframe is based on our estimate to move all the computers/servers to Rockaway and other locations.

Previously, I had communicated that, once we fully vacate 150 River Street, we would open a new location in Hackensack or Paramus. We considered Paramus because it is the retail hub of the county. Our research of the real estate market, though, shows we have more options in Hackensack.

The distribution warehouse on the property will stay in use after December, 2010. Its move date is still to be determined. Most likely, we will move to an industrial/warehouse area closer to Route 80 to save time for our trucks and the carriers.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004051903

[itsme]

Please!!! Many people viewing this site believe that the County Toilet Seat is not a "fair and balanced" reporting agent but was created as a means of self-serving promotion of its political views.  If it were fair and balanced, it would print letters to the Editor opposing some of the views presented in their articles.  I realize that the Editor has the right to choose what items they print but the failure to print any different view makes the declaration of "fair and balanced" to be dishonest at best.