CJR to Hackensack: Drop dead!

Columbia Journalism Review, one of the nation's chief media watchdogs, has expressed no interest in how The Record of Woodland Park is trying to conceal its abandonment of  Hackensack, where it was founded in 1895 and where it prospered for more than 110 years.

I first proposed such a story in a mid-October e-mail to Michael Hoyt, CJR's executive editor, who responded: "Let us throw this in the hopper and consider." Hopper, it turns out, is a euphemism for shit can. Hoyt worked at The Record from 1977-80, and his wife, Mary Ellen Schoonmaker, recently retired after a long editorial career with the newspaper.

I contacted Hoyt a few days ago to propose the story again, this time also asking him to report the start up of "Eye on The Record."

In a Dec. 2 e-mail, he wrote: "We're not planning anything on The Record's move (which was a while ago) or your blog at this time. We get a lot of decent story pitches and ideas and we have to choose; this one did not jump at us, that's all." He also rejected my contention that his wife's "loyalty" to the paper played a role in his decision. (The photo shows Columbia University's journalism building just across the Hudson.)

The Record completed the move of virtually all of its editorial staff out of Hackensack earlier this year -- many, many months before the timetable set by Publisher Stephen A. Borg in a story that appeared in the Buisness section on Feb. 21, 2008. Printing of  The Record and Herald News was moved to Rockaway Township in October 2006, about four months after Borg took over. Yet, the paper's address is still listed on Page A-2 every day as 150 River St. in Hackensack, the same address where it is allegedly "published daily."

The Record, Herald News and the Borg family's North Jersey Media Group now are headquartered at 1 Garret Mountain Plaza, Woodland Park.



http://www.cjr.org/