From great local journalism to hawking 'luxury' apartments

UNDER CONSTRUCTION: The first of 5 apartment buildings planned for 150 River St. in Hackensack -- where The Record and North Jersey Media Group were located -- is under construction, below. The roughly 20-acre building site is between River Street and the Hackensack River. The rendering is from JLL Capital Markets.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Generations of the Borg family prospered in Hackensack for roughly 110 years operating The Record and North Jersey Media Group.

Then, Stephen A. Borg pushed aside his father, Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg, and took over as publisher in 2006.

By 2009, he had moved printing of The Record and Herald News to Rockaway, executed the largest downsizing in the once-great local daily newspaper's history, closed 150 River St. and decamped to Woodland Park.

The younger Borg also ended separate local news sections for Bergen and Passaic counties, and often news of Paterson, Wayne and other communities would dominate the single Local section.

That saved newsprint, but alienated Bergen readers and reduced circulation.

Sells out to Gannett

Then, in July 2016, he sold the family's publishing company to Gannett for nearly $40 million in cash, and laid plans to become an apartment developer, using 19.6 acres cleared of The Record's landmark headquarters and parking lots as his building site.

Now, the Borgs' Fourth Edition Inc., with a nearly $49 million construction loan and two partners, has begun work on the first of 5 buildings with a planned total of 654 units.

The first building of these so-called luxury apartments is sited roughly where The Record's executive offices were located, as well as circulation, advertising and the 4th-floor newsroom.

Think of this: 

Tenants of luxury apartments will be moving their bowels on the site of a great local daily newspaper Stephen Borg helped turn to shit.

Read: Japanese conglomerate

 is ultimate owner of The Record, (201) magazine

Read: Shit in my driveway: 

The Record was delivered to us by mistake

Read: Malcolm A. 'Mac' Borg

 settles porn-suit allegations

In 2019, The Record's slide toward mediocrity didn't slow

CIVIC PUZZLE: On Oct. 26, a business district group and the borough of Fort Lee unveiled this nonsensical sign, which they called an "arts installation," near the massive Hudson Lights development, leaving hundreds of residents to scratch their heads on its meaning and wonder just how they can "be" Fort Lee. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- After lunch at Hiura, our favorite Japanese restaurant in Fort Lee, my friend Arthur drove us to a small park in the massive Hudson Lights development.

He pulled over and I opened the window to make a couple of photos of a sign he told me about a few weeks earlier:

"Be FORT LEE."

"What does that mean?" Arthur had said over and over again.

I couldn't shed any light on its meaning or how one could "be" Fort Lee, but when I got home, I Googled "Be Fort Lee" and found a statement from a business district group and the borough labeling the sign an "arts installation."

Then, I read this:

"The iconic installation signals the Borough's recent renaissance and serves as an aspirational invitation, to residents and visitors alike, to fully experience its enlightened cosmopolitan lifestyle so uniquely situated in a friendly community environment."

What idiocy.

The Record

Did The Record, the once-great local newspaper in Hackensack, report installation of the sign at the controversial high-rise/retail development or ask business and borough officials what the hell it means?

I no longer subscribe to the print edition or NorthJersey.com, which you cannot search unless you do.

But I do see the paper at least once a week, and the local news from Paterson and other towns in Passaic County continues to dominate the Local section, to the chagrin of readers in Bergen County, the heart of the circulation area.

The Sports section usually is twice the size of the Local news section, and both are filled with typos, errors and tortured writing.

The Borg family sold The Record to Gannett on July 6, 2016 -- a date that will live in infamy -- for nearly $40 million in cash, and laughed all the way to the bank.

The Sasson Report 

Here are posts from my omnibus blog, The Sasson Report, on The Record, (201) magazine and the Borg family: 

READ: The Record, North Jersey.com

 lost more readers in 2018

READ: Shit in driveway wasn't from dog walkers

READ: Readers must pay for news, editor says

READ: Tombstones for great local journalism

READ: The best hamburgers in Bergen County?

READ: Repairs on USS Ling

 appear to have been successful

The following post on redevelopment of downtown Hackensack includes details about the Borg family's plans for nearly 20 acres at 150 River St., where The Record's headquarters once stood:

READ: New restaurants and apartments,

 but where do you park?

Civic Info Bill hopes to improve local journalism in N.J.

One look at the smaller and thinner Hackensack Chronicle is all it takes to see how Gannett Co. guts local news staffs. The free weekly no longer has its own editors and reporters. Instead, the paper re-prints stories from The Record of Woodland Park, below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- The state Legislature is expected to vote soon on the Civic Info Bill, one response to the consolidation of media in New Jersey.

Gannett Co., which bought North Jersey Media Group in July 2016, now owns eight daily newspapers in the state, including The Record, the Woodland Park daily that abandoned Hackensack in 2009.

For more, see The Dodge Blog:

Civic Info Bill would create fund

 to spark local journalism projects

Also see: 

N.J. bill hopes to revive local journalism

Storm prevents delivery of print edition three days in a row

A Hackensack Parks Department truck and two men cleared my driveway this afternoon, above and below, after I called to complain plows had blocked it three times during Tuesday's snowstorm, and the barrier was frozen solid.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Gannett continues to slash the payroll at The Record of Woodland Park.

The latest exodus of 141 North Jersey Media Group employees has already begun, and the last of them will be gone by March 25.

They will be receiving one week's pay for every year of service, and can apply for unemployment.

For more news and views of The Record, see these and other posts at The Sasson Report:

After the storm, icy roads in Englwood

More low marks for Hackensack DPW

Readers hit 'corporate greed' at Gannett

Trump supporters attack paper as 'left wing'

For more, see: The Sasson Report