NJMG unit focuses more and more on making news

Seen at a highway rest area in New York State.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

North Jersey Media Group -- publisher of The Record -- is no longer hiding the promotional activities of one of its units, Exposure.

This is how the publishing company describes Exposure:

"Exposure is a specialty area within North Jersey Media Group (NJMG) that produces unique, local events with mass appeal. Utilizing the marketing strength of NJMG products in North Jersey, Exposure offers advertisers and partners complete marketing and promotional services enabling them to reach the widest audience possible."

The Record is one of the NJMG "products" that have been used to promote Exposure events in notices and feature stories.

Using the Woodland Park daily to spread the word about Exposure further blurs the line between news and marketing that began with the ascendancy of Stephen A. Borg to president and publisher.

Hidden in past

In July 2013, Exposure's role in a poorly organized food-truck event at Overpeck Park wasn't acknowledged until a lack of parking forced hundreds of people to turn away or abandon their cars on highway exits and streets.

Now, a link to the Exposure Web site can be found on NorthJersey.com, and its ads appear prominently in the weekly Hackensack Chronicle and other NJMG publications.

The weekly's thin Aug. 29 edition carried four ads promoting Exposure events:

(201) Brides' Night Out, North Jersey Test Drive Experience, North Jersey Career Fair and Octoberfest Food Truck Mash-Up.

The unfortunate use of the phrase "truck mash-up" may remind The Record's readers of recent fatal accidents involving tractor-trailers and a dump truck.

In fact, this week, three people were literally cooked alive when a dump truck smashed into their car in congested traffic on Route 280 in East Orange, and the vehicle was engulfed in fire.

Today's paper

Page 1 today has lots of soft news -- whale sightings at the shore, a rare story about Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, and the low price of gasoline as Labor Day approaches.

The last story is likely to encourage owners of gas-guzzling SUVs to keep their wasteful vehicles, which they usually drive at high speeds, terrorizing other drivers.

The Local section is a mix of police news and features.

Drug care

The big Hackensack news is the arrest of a city man for allegedly possessing a duffle bag of marijuana in his car on Saturday (L-1).

He tried to flee, leaving his 10-month-old daughter in the back seat. 

Not to be undone, a Paterson man, who was charged with delivering cocaine "across North Jersey" on Thursday, had his 3-year-old son with him (L-6).

The two arrests may suggest to head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes or her deputy, Dan Sforza, the need to do a story on the lack of day care.

Second look

In his Sunday column on driving under the influence, Staff Writer John Cichowski again appears to be Reporting Under the Influence, with numerous omissions and errors about penalties, according to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers.

See:

Leave the Road Warrior at home this weekend