The Record's readers blast Gannett redesign, staff changes as a 'disgrace,' 'horrendous' and 'a sad day' for local paper

Readers have posted many negative reviews of Gannett Co.'s redesign of The Record of Woodland Park, as well as staff changes, on the Facebook page of NorthJersey.com, the website of North Jersey Media Group.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The unannounced redesign of The Record of Woodland Park in November has upset many readers, leading some to sound off on Facebook and cancel subscriptions.

Gannett Co. hasn't published any negative letters to the editor of The Record, but invites readers to "review" the print edition on NorthJersey.com's Facebook page.

Of course, many loyal readers are older and don't use computers or smartphones, so that likely has limited the number of negative reviews.

On Nov. 19, reader Hank Hahn said:

"You new format of providing less news in all areas is a disgrace. After over 40 years of home delivery, I will not renew my subscription unless it improves in a very short time."

Don't hold your breath, Hank.

On Nov. 20, Ann Marie Cooke declared: 

"Have been a loyal and devoted reader of your newspaper for over 30 years. The new format of your print paper is horrendous. Sad to say, we've bought our last copy of The Record today."

Reader Joseph Dugan said:

"The Bergen Record needs to stop looking like The Rockland Journal News NOW!!!!!"

Another reader, Barbara McDermott, agreed. 

One woman complained Charlie McGill's portraits no longer graces the Sports section:

"I can't believe Charlie McGill is gone. What are you thinking? My "Record" went south a long time ago but this is just the last straw. Such a sad day. Why did you ruin such a great hometown publication. Sigh."

Check out this YouTube video of McGill talking about his "Athletes of the Week"  feature.

Today's paper 

Along with allowing Governor Christie to profit from writing a book while in office, a separate bill would end a legal requirement that municipalities and counties publish official notices in newspapers (1A).

"That would hurt their revenue streams," Staff Writer Salvador Rizzo says, avoiding the word "profits." 

Rizzo goes on, "One legislative source says the bill was meant as punishment for New Jersey's newspapers."

This is the second time The Record has reported the measure is designed to punish newspapers, but the Woodland Park daily doesn't say why.

Does it have anything to do with Christie ending his presidential campaign in February and immediately throwing his support behind Donald J. Trump?

That prompted The Star-Ledger and six other New Jersey dailies to call for the governor's resignation.

The Record was the only exception, and has never even reported what their editorials demanded.

Trump transition

As the Trump transition becomes more bizarre day after day, The Record generally has avoided reporting about it on Page 1.

Today's story on cyber attacks during the presidential campaign is an exception -- "GOP leaders join outrage at Russia" -- but recall the front-page takeout on Manhattan carriage horses on Sunday. 

Most of Monday's front page was devoted to one of the most boring topics under the sun: state politics.

Impeachment would be too good for evil Christie, Trump

"Twitter tirades" from cartoonist Adam Zyglis lampoons President-elect Donald J. Trump's 3 a.m. tweets.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Governor Christie is trying to buy off the Democrats who control the state Legislature so he can profit from a book deal before he leaves office in 2018, according to the front page of The Record's Sunday edition.

Don't expect a cut for taxpayers who were fleeced by a law firm that got more than $10 million to whitewash the GOP bully's role in the 2013 George Washington Bridge lane closures.

Since Christie took office in January 2010, he's executed more than 500 vetoes to thwart the will of the Democratic majority in Trenton.

Christie vetoed a phased-in hike in the minimum wage to $15 (1O), a tax surcharge on millionaires, stronger gun control and hundreds of other bills.

When the Bridgegate scandal derailed his White House campaign last February, Christie threw his support behind wacko racist Donald J. Trump.

That led The Star-Ledger and six Gannett-owned dailies in New Jersey to call for his resignation, but The Record of Woodland Park was the exception.

Now, even impeachment would be too good for the GOP bully, who somehow escaped being charged in the Bridgegate scandal.

Three of his former aides or associates were convicted.

Trump election

The same could be said for Trump, whose Electoral College victory sparked unprecedented protests after Nov. 8, and set the stage for a Women's March on Washington on Jan. 21, the day after the billionaire businessman is to be inaugurated.

California, Massachusetts and other states, as well as such big cities as New York and Chicago, are expected to file numerous lawsuits to stop Trump from changing policies on such issues as immigration, health care, climate change, abortion rights and gun control (11A).

Commentary

The Record hasn't commented on what many are calling Trump's illegitimate election, with Democrat Hillary Clinton receiving about 2.5 million more votes nationwide.

Two of the paper's columnists also have shifted gear:

Veteran Trenton reporter Charles Stile, one of Christie's biggest apologists before revelations in the Bridgegate trial, is now focusing on the November 2017 gubernatorial election (1A).

Staff Writer Mike Kelly wrote columns during the presidential campaign filled with interviews of laid-off factory workers, who were said to be among Trump's biggest supporters.

Kelly also continued to take pot shots at President Obama, even though he saved hundreds of thousands of auto industry jobs and brought the country back from the brink of a second Great Depression.

Today, Kelly inexplicably devotes his Sunday Opinion front column to David Wildstein, the Christie crony who was the chief government witness at the Bridgegate trial (1O).

Twitter, on the other hand, is filled day after day with attacks on Trump being unfit to take office:

"Trump hasn't drained the swamp," says filmmaker Michael Moore. "He IS the swamp."

"The Strongman" from cartoonist Adam Bagley.

Growing diversity

The major Page 1 story on North Jersey's growing diversity is saddled with an incomplete, hard-to-understand graphic (1A).

Looking at the front page, readers might be puzzled about why the graphic shows Bergen and Passaic counties, but the huge photo with the piece was taken in a Hudson County town, Secaucus.

Only when they turn to the continuation page (6A), do they see another graphic for Hudson and Morris counties.

Local news?

Gannett editors continue to trivialize local news, putting town coverage largely in the hands of reporters for North Jersey Media Group's weekly newspapers.

They are younger, less experienced and get lower pay than staffers for NJMG's dailies. Here are a few headlines from today's Local section:

"Developments to add students in Upper Saddle River"

"Carlstadt wants to limit
kitten and puppy sales"

"New assistant principal to join Cresskill district"

Best restaurants?

The Better Living cover story -- "Best Restaurants of 2016" -- reprints appraisals under the byline of Food Editor Esther Davidowitz.

But I don't see any credit given former critic Elisa Ung, who left the paper last month after nine years as a food writer and weekly restaurant reviewer (1BL).

The idiotic sub-headline: 

"This was a good year for eating out"

As you can tell from reading Ung's reviews, her twin obsessions with meat and dessert often blinded her to whether the food she recommended was naturally raised or grown, which might justify in part the outrageous prices many fine-dining restaurants charge.

Ung started a monthly review of informal, less expensive restaurants in 2015, but that likely was driven by then-Publisher Stephen A. Borg trying to cut her expense account, and disguising it as a service to readers. 

Her last weekly restaurant review ran in November, and she hasn't been replaced by another critic.

The Record has been running a series of "food crawl" pieces in place of weekly reviews. 

On Friday, Staff Writer Sophia F. Gottfried also took a look at fine dining and other options at Newark Liberty International Airport. 

Editors downplay Russian influence on election of Trump

The Port Authority Bus Terminal on Eighth Avenue in midtown Manhattan is the end of the ride for tens of thousands of commuters who board NJ Transit's No. 165 and other buses in northern New Jersey, below. 

Those commuters were ill-served on Friday by another in a series of Page 1 stories in The Record on the political battle over building a new bus terminal in Manhattan. Staff Writer Paul Berger should stop wasting their time and find out why the bi-state agency isn't adding more exclusive bus lanes at the Lincoln Tunnel to expand service in the decade or so before another terminal could be completed.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Gannett editors in a Neptune design center, where The Record and six other company owned dailies are put out every day, have a pretty weird idea of news.

Today, for example, a feature story on Manhattan carriage horses and a shrill column on carbon-monoxide poisoning dominate the Woodland Park daily's front page (1A).

At the bottom of the page, readers learn President Obama has asked intelligence agencies to review all cyber attacks in the last three presidential campaigns and elections, including the Nov. 8 Electoral College victory of President-elect Donald J. Trump.

U.S. intelligence officials are quoted saying they believe "Russia actively  attempted to interfere with this year's U.S. presidential election, including a hack of the Democratic National Committee's email system" (9A).

If Columnist John Cichowski is so concerned about carbon-monoxide poisoning, he could rail against the 53,000 deaths every year from auto emissions, but that might upset the auto dealers and automakers whose advertising keeps the paper afloat.

As it is, a photo with his Road Warrior column today suggests the carbon-monoxide deaths of a woman and two children last January in Passaic could have been prevented, if municipal crews did a better job of clearing the snow around their car.

Syrian refugees

On Friday's front page, the Newark Archdicocese welcoming 51 Syrian refugees against the wishes of Trump and Governor Christie was the only story of real interest in North Jersey. 

Inside the paper, another "food crawl" article in Better Living focused on Turkish restaurants, kebab houses and bakeries -- all relative newcomers to Paterson's South Paterson neighborhood (Better Living). 

Syrian families, including the Fattals and the Nouris, opened bakeries in the late 1960s that still flourish today, along with Syrian restaurants and markets.

Editors finally wake up to darkest days in American history

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is "Dracula in Aleppo" in this cartoon about the Syrian civil war from Arend van Dam. President-elect Donald J. Trump's praise for Putin has been widely reported by the news media, but rarely condemned.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

We have women to thank for returning the focus to just how dangerous President-elect Donald J. Trump is to our democracy.

"Across North Jersey," The Record reports on Page 1 today, "woman are booking buses, reserving hotel rooms, planning car pools and rallying their mothers and daughters to descend on Washington" the day after the wacko racist is inaugurated on Jan. 20.

"There needs to be a really clear message sent to our president-elect and to Congress," says Jen Kistner, a photographer from Edgewater.

"This is not about a Republican being elected -- I've seen plenty of Republicans elected -- this is about a really dangerous person with dangerous ideas who is not qualified for the job" (1A and 8A).

Like the women who will March on Washington on Jan. 21, I'm not buying all the B.S. about Trump uniting the nation, especially in view of his White House and Cabinet picks.

And like those women, I see Trump's election as a vote against women, women's rights and Hillary Clinton, who got up to 2.5 million more votes than Trump and would have been the first woman elected president. 

'Madman of the Year'

Leave it to the sorry print journalists at Time magazine to name the president-elect as Person of the Year (1A and 6A).

"But they did so with a headline that read, 'President of the Divided States of America,'" says Op-Ed Columnist Charles M. Blow of The New York Times.

He continues, "In an interview with the 'Today' show, Trump huffed: 'When you say divided states of America, I didn't divide them.'

"Donald, they name is division. You and your campaign of toxicity and intolerance have not only divided this country but also ripped it to tatters....

"This is our challenge: To see clearly what this deceiver wants to obscure; to be resolute about that to which he wants us to be resigned; to understand that Time's man of the year is, by words and deeds, more of a madman of the year."

Forced busing

Today's front page shows how NJ Transit bus riders still are second-class citizens at Port Authority bus stations in Manhattan (1A).

Reopening of the George Washington Bridge Bus Station is being postponed again, and isn't expected to be completed until April, Staff Writer Paul Berger reports.

Bus commuters also are second-class citizens in The Record's newsroom, where Road Warrior columnist John Cichowski and other reporters ignored them until a couple of years ago, when the editor started receiving angry letters about massive delays at the midtown Manhattan bus station.