Simply put, The Record can't deliver

A sign on door of The Record's Circulation Department.

AnonymousAugust 20, 2012 6:59 PM

I am having trouble with my home delivery of The Record. There was a mix-up with the delivery the days I went on vacation. I received Sunday's paper, but not Monday's. The customer service rep. explained the carriers have been switched around in some areas. I know because I have a new carrier.

AnonymousAugust 19, 2012 4:29 PM

Anyone have any clue what's going on with home delivery? My neighbors are complaining about non-delivery...something about a change in distribution...

As you can see from these comment, The Record has trouble delivering the newspaper -- let alone delivering decent local-news coverage. 

Last week, subscribers received a letter from Bob Konig, one of the many highly paid vice presidents at North Jersey Media Group, about "some changes in our home delivery operation."

Are the changes related to the editors making a greater effort to bring local news to readers? Don't be silly.

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes can't break away from planning her next gargantuan meal. 

And Dan Sforza, her deputy yes man, is trying to figure out how he can assign a follow-up to all those stories he wrote years ago on "highways of the future."

Meanwhile, Editor Marty Gottlieb apparently still regrets leaving the The New York Times and his high life in Paris to take over the Woodland Park daily.

The changes are related not to more news or later sports scores, but to all those store circulars and fliers that present a recycling challenge to home-delivery customers.

"Many of these advertisers are targeting their inserts to specific ZIP codes and even smaller geographic areas," Konig wrote.

"To ensure delivery of the proper inserts, and to provide inserts and circulars to maximize your savings, we have made some changes in our home delivery operation.

"As carriers learn their new routes, your newspaper may have been placed in a slightly different place on your property, deliveries may be slightly later, or we may even have missed a delivery."

This past Thursday, my newspaper was delivered in an unusual white bag emblazoned with this message:

"LOOK INSIDE OF TODAY'S AND EVERY THURSDAY'S PAPER FOR THE CIRCULARS OF ..."

Below that, the logos of a dozen supermarkets and other food outlets were shown.

But I found only one flier, from A&P, and nothing from ShopRite, Fairway Market and other food stores I patronize.

There also was no explanation for why the supermarket inserts were being sent on Thursday and not on Wednesday, the traditional day for food sections and sales fliers.

The Record's dysfunctional Circulation Department long has been a thorn in readers' sides.

Since I moved to Hackensack in 2007 and began subscribing to the paper the following year, I've lost count of how many times the plastic bag was left open, despite pouring rain, and my paper was sopping wet.

I have to say a dry paper was delivered eventually in almost every case.

Today's paper

On A-1 today, a blurb paraphrases Governor Christie as saying "he remains confident the state's economy is inching forward."

But I don't see those words -- "inching forward" -- in the A-3 story on Christie defending his "Jersey Comback" long after it became a "Jersey Setback."

The GOP bully is so used to screwing middle class taxpayers that he may be measuring his "come" in inches or the reference may be to all those inches he has added to his waistline.

Zisaville stories

Hackensack news today and Monday continued to be about the city's Police Department (A-1 column on Monday and L-1 news story today).

Today's story on provisional Police Chief Tomas Padilla discusses his deposition testimony about incidents "dating as far back as two decades ago."

Putting on the ritz

On the front of Better Living, readers learn that what they really need is another expensive Italian-American restaurant (Starters on BL-1).

Northern Italian entrees are $15.95 to $33.95 at Zana D in Tenafly, the town multimillionaire Publisher Stephen A. Borg calls home.

What do you get for $15.95 to $33.95? The highly promotional story doesn't say a word about naturally raised meat and poultry.

Judging from the photo of the owner, Arben "Alberto" Dautaj, you'll get the usual conventional fare raised on harmful animal antibiotics and growth hormones, and he'll get more beautiful suits for his wardrobe.

Borg is flying high

What do you get if you sell a private jet to Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg of Englewood?

If you're Rebecca Posoli-Cilli, you get another lavishly promotional story about you and your company on The Record's first Business first page (A-10 0n Monday).

The woman, a wealthy dealer of $10 million to $50 million business jets, sold one to Borg and his best friend, real estate tycoon Jon Hanson.

In early 2011, a Your Money's Worth column about Posoli-Colli appeared in The Record. Here's a link to the Eye on The Record post:

Did the Borgs meddle in the news?