Future of Gannett journalism: 5 times more ads than news

NJ Transit buses in the exclusive lane to the Lincoln Tunnel are driven against the flow of westbound traffic during the morning commute. The Port Authority has ignored calls for a second XBL, as the lane is called, and never explained why exclusive bus lanes don't operate in the evening, too.

For decades, this portion of Route 495 to the Lincoln Tunnel has been called the helix. On Wednesday, The Record's so-called commuting columnist labeled it a "bridge," and raised an alarm about a rehabilitation project that won't start until late next year at the earliest.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I might actually try reading the Thanksgiving Day edition of The Record now that I've caught my breath after wrestling with what felt like 5 pounds of advertising inserts.

I quickly bundled them up for recycling, along with Sports, leaving me with four news and feature sections, containing pages that appear to carry more advertising and less news than before Gannett redesigned the print edition.

Stephen A. Borg, the former publisher, was no slouch when it came to advertising and marketing, and he even created a North Jersey Media Group unit that staged food-truck and other events.

Those events were promoted in the paper and covered by the news staff.

With the sale of NJMG to Gannett for a reported $40 million in July, the Borgs now call themselves Fourth Edition Inc., and work out of their old offices in Woodland Park.

Today's paper

It's front-page news when President-elect Donald J. Trump doesn't appoint another middle-aged white man or white supremacist to his Cabinet (1A).

Today's A-section has news on 4A, 8A and 9A that would normally appear in Local.

Local news?

Since Gannett let go more than 200 NJMG employees, reporters and editors for daily and weekly papers now work out of the same newsroom.

That means readers of the local-news section have been seeing many unfamiliar bylines, which belong to reporters from the weeklies.

Generally, they are younger and less experienced, and make a lot less money than reporters for The Record and Herald News.

Wednesday's paper

Staff Writer Christopher Maag, who covered NJ Transit and the city of Hackensack for The Record, had a Page 1 byline on Wednesday that identified him as "columnist."

No thumbnail photo of Maag appeared, as with The Record's other columnist. 

His story on "one family's journey from Syria to Paterson" is a tearjerker, especially if you've been following the horrific news from Aleppo and other towns that are being destroyed during the civil war.

The focus was on Ghussoon Zouabi, 39, who recalls the food shortages in Syria and who has been cooking non-stop since she arrived in South Paterson for her family, for the homeless and for others.

"When we got to my parents house [in Paterson], the kids opened the fridge and pulled all the food out and ate it. I sat on the floor and cried."

Zouabi arrived in the United States in March 2013. 

Last year, after the terrorist attacks in Paris, Governor Christie called for a ban on all Syrian immigrants to New Jersey, including children, but it has been widely ignored.

Route 495

Staff Writer John Cichowski appears to be the only columnist who continues to use a dated thumbnail photo, which is probably a decade old.

On Wednesday's Local front, his Road Warrior column quotes commuters who use Route 495 to the Lincoln Tunnel.

But Cichowski isn't concerned about congestion in the exclusive bus lane, the lack of rush-hour seats on NJ Transit buses or how Route 495 was closed for an hour in each direction when Trump left Manhattan for his New Jersey golf club last week.

Instead, the addled reporter looks more than a year ahead to the start of a major rehabilitation of the Route 495 helix, which he refers to as a "bridge" (1L).

The Record's laughing stock spins another fictional tale

A bus emerging from the Lincoln Tunnel in New Jersey late one afternoon, above, as empty NJ Transit commuter buses jam the Route 495 helix on the way into the city to pick up North Jerseyans waiting in long lines at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan, below.

What New Jersey commuters encounter most of all when they leave the terminal's Eighth Avenue exit in the morning are homeless panhandlers. Few pay attention to the statue of TV's Ralph Kramden on the way home, despite the silly Road Warrior column in The Record today.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

To address worsening delays faced by North Jersey commuters waiting for their buses home weekday afternoons, The Record sent reporter John Cichowski to spin a fictional tale outside the bus terminal in Manhattan.

It's hard to imagine that a commuter anticipating a long delay on a crowded bus platform -- and maybe even standing the whole way home -- would regard a statue of TV's Ralph Kramden as "a bright spot" (Road Warrior column on A-1).

If they even notice the statue as they race by it into the terminal and up the escalators to get on line and wait, wait, wait ....

"People have been complaining for more than a decade about the service [in the terminal]," Cichowski writes, without explaining why he has been doing his column for more than a decade and only recently started writing about the delays (A-8).

His column is also the first mention I've seen of "those people fainting in extra-long lines in waiting areas without air conditioning on summer afternoons" (A-1).

The Port Authority Bus Terminal -- not "station," as he refers to it on Page 1 -- and most, if not all, of the platforms are enclosed and air-conditioned.

Cichowksi as the Road Warrior has become a laughing stock after years of confused reporting on driving issues and an inability to get anything right.

Home-rule woes

Another story on the front page today -- allegations of physical assault against Bogota Mayor Tito Jackson -- makes you wonder why North Jersey residents seem so content with being ruled by morons (A-1).

For decades, The Record has defended, as well as largely ignored, the home-rule system of government -- with its duplication of services, high property taxes and petty corruption.

Residents have stopped noticing, judging from the small numbers who actually vote in council and school board elections.

Why hasn't the Woodland Park daily reported on the causes of voter apathy locally, in the state and in the nation?

The editors might find out their coverage --which emphasizes politics while ignoring issues -- might be to blame.

We're drowning

The front of Local brings the third straight day of coverage of Ridgewood's Charlotte Samuels, the grossly overweight 16-year-old swimmer who now appears to face competition in her bid to be the youngest to complete the "Triple Crown" (L-1).

That's open-water swimming, not horse racing.

An 18-year-old college student from Australia, Lachlan Hinds, has completed the three long-distance swims, including the 20.2-mile Catalina Channel in California, according to swimming reporter Abbott Koloff.

Hinds did it in 9 hours and 31 minutes -- less than half Samuel's 20 hours and 20 minutes.

Wheels of misfortune edition

Image via Wikipedia

Sen. Frank Lautenberg doesn't mince words in describing Governor Christie.

What's with the front page of The Record today?


Did Editor Francis Scandale concoct a themed edition -- with car wheels, bus wheels and the wheels of a military Humvee, the only vehicle strong enough to carry Governor Christie, the state's Big Wheel?


And it's all bad news. Atlantic City developers are vowing to pull out, if Christie runs for president. Why do they need him here? Did they bribe him?


The off-lead A-1 story reports carefree suburbanites not only leave their luxury cars unlocked, they leave their electronic keys in the vehicles, so theft is easy. Why is this kind of moronic behavior front-page news?


Forced busing


The A-1 patch notes hundreds of buses are parked in New Jersey lots between rush hours, then driven into the city to pick up commuters bound for New Jersey, leading to big delays.


Now, the Port Authority has dropped plans to build a bus-parking garage in Manhattan, claiming even higher toll revenue won't cover the cost. 


The story seems to say this is catastrophic. That the mass-transit world is about to implode. 


But instead of regurgitating the views of the bi-state agency, transportation writers Shawn Boburg and Karen Rouse should be hammering away at the Port Authority for not adding a second, reverse bus lane into the Lincoln Tunnel and refusing to expand the PATH system.


An why not ask the bi-state agency for the logic of charging another public agency, NJ Transit, to use the tunnel? 


Or why all those parked buses aren't used during the day to replace the decades-old white buses that ply the No. 780 (Englewood/city of Passaic) and other local routes?


Newsroom idle


Some genius on Liz Houlton's news copy desk wrote the buses "idle" in the parking lot shown in the A-1 photo. Doesn't that suggest their motors are running, when, in fact, they are parked with their engines off between morning and evening rush hours?


With fire breathers like head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, maybe the air quality in the Woodland Park newsroom is affecting the copy editors' judgment.


But what's the excuse for Houlton and other copy desk supervisors for headline, text and caption errors that appear in the paper every day?


Doblin loves Christie


Turn to Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin's A-11 column on Christie today. You can almost hear him sigh, "My Hero." 


Doblin finds Christie "intoxicating." (Others are nauseated by the governor.) Compare Doblin to what Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., had to say about Christie in Saturday's paper:


Christie is "a persistent liar," "abusive to women, "a bully" and "strictly a divider," Lautenberg said (A-6).


Same old news


Sykes, the head assignment editor, appears to have given the Hackensack beat to one of her best reporters, Stephanie Akin, but Akin seems mired in the ins and outs of Police Chief Ken Zisa's legal problems (Local front), as was her predecessor, Monsy Alvarado.


Police news appears on L-2, L-3, L-5 and L-6 today -- all of it involving motor vehicle mayhem of one kind or another. 


The message seems to be to stay away from your car or drunks, predators and bad drivers will kill, maim, injure or rob you.


Indigestion


If you dry age a steak, you'll win over Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung, who won't question whether the beef was raised with harmful additives.


I'm still trying to digest her description of the steaks she sampled at Wayne Steakhouse.


In her review this past Friday, Ung said "they lacked the distinctive mineral funk of other dry-aged steaks I’ve eaten at North Jersey’s top steakhouses." 


How informative.

Editors turn backs on readers

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A baby girl from Union City is killed by a tree branch in Manhattan. How tragic. Gee-whiz. Why can't someone do something about killer trees? And why is this on Page 1 of The Record of Woodland Park, which no longer covers Union City -- not to mention its drought on news of Hackensack, Englewood and Teaneck? Is there no other Bergen or Passaic, state or national story worthy of A-1 play?

The continuing saga of beach access on the Jersey Shore should be on the front page today, but isn't. Doesn't Editor Frank "Castrato" Scandale have a shore home? Doesn't Scandale see the importance of beach access to readers or couldn't he care less about other people's problems? The Borgs probably summer in the Hamptons. And the features editor gives better coverage to MTV's "Jersey Shore."

If  readers have problems with NJ Transit buses or trains, who do they turn to? Certainly not Road Warrior John Cichowski, one of the hand-picked reporter chicks hatched by head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes, who has been known to suffocate her newsroom offspring. Today, he has another in an endless series of  MVC columns on the front of Local as he continues to pander to drivers over mass transit users. Cichowski needs a refresher course in what it means to be a journalist who covers commuting.

Looking for Hackensack news? Go awaken Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado, another reporter chick, who is asleep on the doorstep of Police Chief Ken Zisa -- whose legal troubles are just about the only thing she has written about in more than a year. Who is that sleeping next to her? Englewood reporter Giovanna Fabiano? Teaneck reporter Joseph Ax? Staff Writers Shawn Boburg and Jean "One-Byline-A-Year" Rimbach? All seem to take their cues from Sykes.


Looking for a unique take on the news from Columnist Mike Kelly on the front of Opinion? Forget about it. Looking for food coverage in Sunday's Better Living? Fruit is mentioned in the clunky opening paragraphs of a doctor's profile. Looking for help with arcane airline fare rules? You won't get it from Travel Editor Jill Schensul, who travels for free. Today, she publishes a throwaway 24-page tab filled with readers' photos. How useful.


For decades, readers have looked in vain to The Record's editors and owners to expose the economic folly of home rule and the pettiness of all of the overpaid officials who set our property taxes. The editors prefer to report on the consequences of home rule, such as parents having to pay for high school athletics (A-1), but they've been so reluctant to put the full might of the paper behind reform of the system.

So, it takes a professor's Opinion front proposal for a consolidated entity he calls Bergen City to strike a chord with readers, whose letters of praise appear on L-3 today.


Under Scandale and Sykes, the former Hackensack daily has neglected local news more and more. Instead, these editors have targeted the "high" salaries of police, firefighters and teachers as the main reason our taxes are so high, but have rarely questioned the need for 70 police chiefs and nearly as many superintendents in Bergen County. (Several years ago, a story on the outrageous perks enjoyed by North Jersey school superintendents was supplied by The Associated Press -- based on a state report -- making the local staff look like a bunch of lazy fools.)

Now, the editors have gained a powerful ally in Governor Christie, who has been a relentless critic of teachers and state workers unions. And Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin has been doing wonderful P.R. for Christie, while giving him a pass on the millionaires tax and not raising the low gasoline tax.


The overpaid editors seem to see the state budget crisis from the perspective of the wealthy Borgs and their powerful North Jersey Media Group. Keep the focus on taking more away from the middle and working classes, from poor schoolchildren and the disabled, from seniors and other vulnerable segments of society -- so the wealthy Borgs can continue to live in the lap of luxury, putting themselves first ahead of readers and their own employees.


"I'm not in this for the money," Publisher Stephen A. Borg told the assembled staff in Hackensack in mid-2006, showing them a slide of his nearly $2 million Tenafly home, which he would trade in 2007 for a $3.65 million McMansion bought with a company mortgage. Bizarre. I couldn't make this up. Sadly, the joke was on me and the other employees.

(Photo: Decades-old NJ Transit local bus)