Borgs to Hackensack: Drop dead!

The Record's landmark building at 150 River St. in Hackensack is largely empty, just as the news pages carry little Hackensack news. Yet the Borgs -- Malcolm, Stephen and Jennifer -- try to hide how they've abandoned Hackensack readers and residents by continuing to list the paper's address on Page 2 every day as 150 River St., just under "The Trusted Local Source."

The former Hackensack daily continues to downplay the state's financial problems by putting fluff on the front page. Today's story about college textbooks completely ignores how greedy publishers and bookstores gouge students shamelessly, and should have run before the semester started.

On Page A-10, a letter to the editor praises the owner of Harley's on River Street in Hackensack for serving 150 to 200 Thanksgiving meals to the homeless, a story I didn't see in The Record. Now that it has moved to Woodland Park, why doesn't the newspaper use its largely empty landmark building several blocks from Harley's as a food pantry while the Borgs' North Jersey Media Group looks for buyers?

"What this country needs is more people like Pat Harley," the letter writer says. Can we put the young, wealthy NJMG President and Publisher Stephen A. Borg in that category, or will he be trading up soon to a $7 million to $8 million mansion from his $3.65 million estate in Tenafly?

You know there is little news in the Local section today by how large the paper ran a moody, holiday photo on the front. You certainly won't find any education or municipal or development news about Hackensack. But you will find a story about Jersey City.

If you doubt the levels of news copy editing and reporting have declined drastically at The Record, just check out the lead story on the first Business page:

N.J. companies taking flight

Recession, costs force CEOs

to relocate headquarters

But the story is about a study and doesn't name a single company that left New Jersey. Thanks to Staff Writer Hugh R. Morley and the anonymous copy editor who wrote the headline, it serves as tremendous publicity for a Princeton firm that helps companies relocate.