Cartoonist Jimmy Margulies is discarded

The Record's old headquarters in Hackensack have become an eyesore.

Publisher Stephen A. Borg -- the marketing whiz who has been running The Record since 2007 -- has fired Jimmy Margulies, the award-winning cartoonist who joined the staff more than 22 years ago.

Readers of Blue Jersey got the news in an item posted Sunday evening. It included a message from Margulies:

"After almost 22 and 1/2 years at The Record in northern New Jersey, I became the latest editorial cartoonist to lose a full time staff job at a daily newspaper. Despite having won a few national awards,  syndication and frequent appearances in some high profile places like USA Today, as well as being a popular local speaker and using social media to become one of the most popular features on the paper's Web site, it was not enough to save me from the paper's decision to trim expenses."

The Record recently offered buyouts to editorial staffers who are at least 60 years old, but it's not known whether Margulies qualified.

Here is a link to the item on Blue Jersey, which calls itself "All the news that slips from print":

'A true Jersey treasure' 


Not long after the young publisher took over, he asked Margulies to focus his cartoons on New Jersey topics.

The buyouts and firing of the cartoonist follow cuts in the news hole that apparently are linked to a lack of advertising support, including the folding of the Signature section and less space devoted to Travel and the weekly restaurant review.

Borg is the spoiled rich kid, also known as a Silver Spoon, who puts his own welfare above that of the newspaper's staff.

2008 downsizing

Recall the 2008 staff downsizing that followed by several months his use of a company mortgage to buy a $3.65 million mansion in Tenafly

Apparently, Borg felt his growing family didn't have enough space in his $2 million mansion.

One staffer who left in that bloodletting was Nancy Cherry, a supervisor of the news copy desk, who single-handedly upheld standards of accuracy, grammar and good news writing.

'Queen of Errors'

With her departure, the number of errors, inaccurate and clunky headlines, and flawed photo captions has soared under the inept supervision of Production Editor Liz Houlton.

Another one of Borg's boneheaded moves was to fold The Record's Food section.

Houlton, known as the "Queen of Errors" from all the years she ran the features copy desk, is paid six figures.

If Borg wanted to cut expenses, he should have shit-canned Houlton or another six-figure staffer, Deirdre Sykes, the supremely lazy head assignment editor who is directly responsible for the drastic decline in news coverage of Hackensack and so many other towns. 

It's a sad day when talented staffer like Margulies are let go and incompetents like Houlton and Sykes stay on to continue wreaking havoc.

  

Borgs show their generosity

Stephen and Monica Borg paid $3.65 million in 2007 for this home on Tenafly's East Hill, using a mortgage from North Jersey Media Group, where Borg is president.

Photos of Vice President/General Counsel Jennifer A. Borg and her sister-in-law, Monica L. Borg, appear on the back page of today's Better Living section.

They attended a fund-raiser on May 30 to support Table to Table, the "food-rescue program" that distributes "excess prepared and perishable food" to the hungry in North Jersey (BL-12).

From the looks of some of the other people attending the event in River Vale -- "The Great Grill and Pig Out!" -- Table to Table might want to try rescuing food before it is eaten by its wealthy donors. 

Monica Borg is married to Jennifer Borg's younger brother, Publisher Stephen A. Borg of Tenafly.

Older newsroom workers wished the Borgs were more charitable to them during a 2008 downsizing at The Record, the flagship paper of North Jersey Media Group.

No real news on Page 1 today

Image by Shaun Greiner via Flickr













The three stories on the front page of The Record of Woodland Park today could have run yesterday, tomorrow or never, and readers would have been no worse off. They don't amount to more than holiday weekend filler in the absence of any real news.

The main element on A-1 isn't a story at all, but a graphic on the bleak New Jersey job picture. That's not news, as the tens of thousands of jobless residents know, and with companies like North Jersey Media Group around, it's not likely to get better anytime soon.


What does a company do with its millions of dollars in reserve? Should it hire more editorial workers to improve its product, in this case local news? Absolutely not. 

It forked over $3.65 million in the form of a company mortgage to dim-witted Publisher Stephen A. Borg so he, his wife, and their kids can escape the confines of a $2 million mansion in Tenafly, then downsized The Record and Herald News, bidding adieu to dozens of loyal and hard-working employees.


The lead story today is a speculative one about politics and the November elections. These are among the most-boring topics in The Record or any other medium -- so far removed from most readers' concerns with paying the mortgage and their property taxes, and sending their  kids to college.


Will the media ever stop reporting every bill, every law, every government program in terms of its impact on the next election? Why not write more about the victims of recession -- not charts with up and down arrows, but profiles of people facing their biggest challenges?


The third story on the front page today is on the hot-button issue of illegal immigration, and deportations in New Jersey. I have yet to see a story as extensive on the need for reform of the legal immigration system, which is the cause of much illegal immigration.


In Local, Mike Kelly is back for a second day in a row, like a bad case of indigestion.

His L-1 column on the Ground Zero mosque controversy reads like a news story. He quotes both sides and an expert, but refuses to venture an opinion of his own. Why is this a column? He breaks no new ground. He calls himself a journalist, but as a columnist, he doesn't have the balls to take a stand.


Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado has her second story in nine days on L-1 today. The Police Department, it seems, may hire experienced officers laid off by other towns. Hey, Monsy, don't overwork yourself.


Alvarado quotes City Manager Stephen Lo Iacono on police hiring, but apparently doesn't take the opportunity to ask him about the new property tax rate, plans for solar panels on public buildings, a proposal to change the zoning of downtown to encourage development along Main Street and other pressing issues she has ignored for more than a year.


Monsy, I know you're just obeying head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes, who always tells you: "We're not interested in Hackensack, anymore. It's so passe. It's so far away [from Woodland Park]. It's so tres, tres fey."

As are Teaneck and Englewood, it seems, two other diverse communities that are ignored for yet another day. 

(Photo: Labor Day parade.)