On Demand
Losing News
Thursday, November 13, 2008
New Jersey's largest newspaper, the Newark Star Ledger, has been decimated by staff cuts, leaving locals worried that they are losing an important watchdog on the powerful. Michael Aron, Senior Political Correspondent and News Director at NJN, will look at the impact of the cuts.
New Jerseyans: Tell us where you get your news.
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I still get the Star-Ledger, but twice this week there have been production screwups-- missing articles, blank pages. I hope it survives, it's a good paper. I would read the Bergen Record, but it doesn't cover my area. The Morristown Daily Record is okay on local news, but that's all.
The Star Ledger has done a great job over the years of reporting on the disaster that is NJ. I fear that the fiscal and political climate in the state would be much worse (hard to believe) without a watchdog of this sort. Unfortunately, as newspapers disappear our democracy is threatened.
I hate to say this, but WNYC is part of the problem for New Jersey. We get so much of our news from outside the state (NYC for northern NJ, Philadelphia in the south), that we know more about what's going on in neighboring states than in our own. I can't get a NJ-based NPR news station from home (WBGO Newark is great but doesn't have much news). I can't get an NJN radio station at home. I hear endlessly about NYC city council and mayoral battles, but nearly nothing about the New Jersey state government.
It isn't only WNYC of course, though I'm a public radio listener. I read the NY Times instead of the Star Ledger because their national coverage is so much better. It's true of local TV news as well, and even PBS stations - I don't have cable, but I get a great digital broadcast signal from Channel 13 (which is itself licensed in Newark, not New York, but that's another issue), but I can't get anything from WNJN Montclair even though it's only a few miles away.
New Jersey is "a keg tapped at both ends" as Ben Franklin said.
The Star Ledger is just an example of what's been happening everywhere in media. Print media has become financially unsustainable. Printing costs are too high, and advertisers see more value and results in online ads, especially because they are easy to track.
The Star Ledger is a fantastic paper, and has been for many years, it will just move on line, as most publications will over the next few years.
If the NY Times is losing money, it's no surprise that most print publications are hurting as well.
I try to focus on books so that when I read news off of the sites that google or yahoo aggregate, I can put stuff in context. I do like antiwar.com
I always felt that the lack of professional, useful newspaper coverage in NJ is due only to the extremely high prices of homes there. Who can afford a $4K mortgage working as a newspaper reporter? Christie Whitman is busy.
Star Ledger has been the one exception. A daily miracle.
It is so useful that I was hoping that it would always remain intact if for no other reason than to serve elected officials, like Amtrak's raison d'etre.
just as it's hard for restaurants so close to NYC, so it goes with the newspaper... i get the NY Times delivered and read it online. Never read the Jersey papers. Maybe bcz i am not really interested in the very local news and i just go to the BBC and the NY TImes and NPR, etc....
(what's left? topix.com and nj.com, but both of those are ridden w bigots and not very useful or reliable, though nj.com is better.
I get most of my news from the Star Ledger. If it goes out I don't know where I will get my news, especially any of my New Jersey news. I could always get the Times, but for NJ or Middlesex County news I look to the Ledger.
I get it from WNYC. I'm an emigrant Star Ledger doesn't address my interest just like Republican Party is out of touch with the demography of the state.
I went to college in Newark Star Ledger was given for free & no one would pick it.
The Newhouse papers went through a brief spasm of interest in editorial quality. That's over. They have seven people covering Hudson County and the Ledger rarely covers the county because of the Newhouses own the Jersey Journal. I suspect Jim Willse could be one of the people taking the buyout, so what happens when the next editor has a reduced staff and financial constraints?
Old habits die hard (or maybe I'm just wistful for my life in the city) -- I continue to get 75% of my news via WNYC, and 25% thru NYTimes.com. It never even occurs to me to pick up the Star Ledger, probably because I'm rarely interested only in NJ news.
any comment on the idea that craigslist has helped kill newspapers by taking away classified advertising - previously a major source of newspaper revenue...?
We get three newspapers: NYTimes, WSJournal, and the Star Ledger. The Times and the Journal are where we get national news. But we depend on the Star Ledger for NJ state and Essex county news.
Someone made the point, there is so much political corruption in this state, someone needs to be a watchdog in this state. The Maplewood News-Record is not going to do that, and we can't count on the Times to do that, either.
And, if the Star Ledger goes away, where will be get our daily comics?
Here in North Plainfield, NJ one of the main issues pre election was that the town doesn't update its website enough. "We don't get info about our town!" Of course, that's what the papers always covered. So much info is hidden and that's never good.
I always read the star ledger for sports because I love the coverage of Rutgers but I get all of my News from NPR. I also read the Wall Street Journal. I hate local newspapers. I probably go to NJ.com 75% of the time to read and I have found some of the more progressive technologies used at NJ.com to be better then the paper.
Oh please.
Fire the reporters and you won't get news except for lame press releases and ignorant rants. Officials and companies will do what they want.
whynot just sit in an easy chair and read the new yorker?
Death of communities, what's the big deal.
I have to say, I feel about as comfortable reading a paper as I would feel shaving with a strait razor... I'm 25 and I get my news exclusively from the web. Paper is dead.
i still get the star ledger; don't hardly open it; delivery problems.
I go to baristanet for local news; glen ridge and montclair
I am an orthodox jew and I love sitting with the NYTIMES on Saturday, quietly and reading it - with NO technology in the way.
The most recent comment kind of reminded me of the loss of the card catalogue (or migration to the electronic card catalogue) you lose the serendipitous find. When you have a hard copy of the newspaper in your hand, you often spot articles you would not actually be looking for on line
We do receive the Star-Ledger. It's important for local, and national news. We balance it with the Wall Street Journal daily, and the New York Times, when we have time to read it. We also use all the websites. I love reading the paper on the train, too! Ugh! Computer screens!
One of the people who adds content to NJ.com is a librarian, well-versed in NJ/NY needs, but I think HER position may be in play also.
(YIPES!) Losing the "quality people" who add to the website!
I live in NJ and read the NY Times every day. I stopped reading the Star Ledger because it had so much advertising, and so little news. Also, I try to read the Times on line, but it’s too difficult to navigate. I love flipping pages in a linear way.
The other dilemma about the loss of printed news is the random, leafing through option. The web is good for searching for specifics: I need an article on education policy, I can search for it. And while I can pull up the front page of periodicals online, I can't page through it and come across something randomly that I would not have gone looking for.
This loss of casual reading, the ability to discover new topics, issues, and information, is a major problem with the dominance of the web generally.
I subscribe to the NY Times for national news. The NY Times doesn't publish the Sunday Jersey section any longer, which I enjoyed reading. I also listen avidly to WNYC.
I occasionally read the Asbury Park Press or online app.com for local NJ news. Channel 62 on cable is New Jersey News but I find it too surfacy with lots of sound bites but not much depth to the stories.
I never read the Star Ledger but I consider it a state fixture and would be sad to see it close, if it comes to that.
I look for online sources for NJ news.
don't worry -- craig newmark is on the case!
Newspapers made from paper will be phased out, but I think people will start to read their news on some kind of electronic reader. Flexible, paper-like screens are just a few years away from being commercially available. You could have thirty newspapers in the palm of your hand without feeling like you're reading from a computer screen. Getting your news on your computer is great, but if you're on the bus or the subway, you're going to want something portable and easy to read.
Besides... paperless news is more sustainable.
If media companies have not figured out by now that printed news is on its way out, then they have serious problems. It is not that the new generation doesn't read news anymore. We do, but we do not limit ourselves to just one medium and one source. Technology has opened up the world to us therefore we can now learn about other part of the world, read news not covered by American media and see other people's points of view. The world is a big place and it is all within reach. Why limit yourself?
I think there is still a place for suburban papers. I have a 7 day subscription to the Journal News - I would know nothing about what is going on locally without it. The Times subscription is limited to the weekend.
I get my news from NPR, NY Times, C-Span, Jim Lehrer, Bergen Record and a local paper. Paper is so much more convenient. You can easily carry it with you and open it quickly. I search for particular news on the Internet, but I print it out to read it. I don't think that people who get their news on the internet or a cellphone will really read an in-depth article; they are looking for news bites. News has become very complex, e.g. financial crisis; you don't get full understanding with news bites.
I am disappointed to hear that The Star Ledger is scaling back so dramatically. For many years it has been my first stop each morning to get a general overview of the day's news and some solid detail about New Jersey in general and my local area as well. I later turn to the NY Times for a more wide ranging coverage of world and national issues.
Like Michael Aron, I look forward to sitting with the paper, usually while eating breakfast, and choosing which articles to focus on and which to scan briefly. I appreciate the time constraints that some have mentioned but for me I relish the ability to absorb the news and relax while reading it each day.
The notion of sitting at the computer to get the news is not enticing to me at all unless I am looking for more detailed research on a particular topic.
I subscribed to the Star-Ledger for about two decades, starting when I moved to South Orange in 1986. Delivery was almost always spotty (except for one 3yr period when we had a great delivery person). I finally got so fed up with the unreliability of delivery last year that I gave up on the newspaper. Now I rely almost exclusively on the web for news (except for the weekly local newspaper).
I have not found a good source for NJ news. I doubt that one exists. I have found that of all the online newspapers that I frequent -- Washington Post, NY Times, StarTribune (Minneapolis), Pioneer Press (St. Paul) [I'm originally from MN] and the StarLedger -- the StarLedger is the most difficult to traverse. In my opinion it is the most poorly designed of the newspaper web sites. Therefore, I rarely go there anymore for information. As a result I feel increasingly uninformed on NJ issues (while at the same time being increasingly *informed* on national issues).
At one time I tried to get news from NJN, but reception is exceedingly poor for NJN where I live (even though I get great reception for the NY networks, including PBS -- I don't subscribe to cable/satellite/FiOS tv). I would love to find a reliable and informative source for NJ news, but it just doesn't seem to be there :o(
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