Cranking up the P.R. machine

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The all-electric Nissan Leaf uses no gas, but The Record prefers to publicize a new Chevrolet plug-in hybrd. The Leaf can travel much farther on electricity than the more-expensive Volt.

The Record of Woodland Park really cranks up the public relations machine today for Hackensack University Medical Center -- one of its big advertisers -- only to tell readers who slog through all that type it is being run by many of the same people whose actions led to a "damaging" federal corruption trial.

I couldn't identify the trial mentioned in the lead paragraph on Page 1, because convicted former state Sen. Joseph Coniglio was sentenced more than 15 months ago, and his name doesn't appear on A-1. 

So the rest of the story by Staff Writers Mary Jo Layton and Lindy Washburn basically sums up how little has really changed in more than a year at the huge hospital campus, which dominates a once-quiet North Hackensack neighbrhood. 

Ridgewood v. Hackensack

It's curious how Layton -- at the behest of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her clueless minions -- has written far more about neighbors protesting expansion plans of The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, compared to how little The Record has reported about similar protests over the expansion of HUMC. 

What's so irresponsible about that is the Ridgewood hospital wants to expand within existing borders, while an unknown number of houses have been torn down to make room for a parking garage and more buildings at this behemoth of a medical center in Hackensack. 

There's not a word about the neighborhood in today's takeout.

And it's only on the full continuation page (A-8) we learn that Jennifer A. Borg, vice president and general counsel of The Record's parent company, North Jersey Media Group, has been moved to an advisory board to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. Still, NJMG is allowed to profit from her hospital relationship by selling hundreds of thousands of dollars of print and online advertising to HUMC.

Wasting space on a crackpot

For the second day in a row, Editor Francis Scandale wastes precious front-page space on a right-wing radio talk-show host convicted of threatening three federal judges. Let's hope they throw away the key.

150 mpg is no joke for Volt

I'm not sure what this headline means on L-1 -- over John Cichowski's Road Warrior column -- but it's increasingly clear Chick is the joke. 

He is the latest staffer to err in calling the new Chevrolet sedan an "electric" vehicle, when the plug-in hybrid needs gas for the conventional engine that backs up its batteries and electric motor.

And in keeping with his poor reputation for accuracy and completeness, he also doesn't answer an obvious question: 

Why has The Record published at least three photos of the Volt -- two of them showing customers picking up the new car -- but none of the all-electric, no-gas Nissan Leaf, which has a battery range of 62 miles to 138 miles, compared to the Volt's 35 miles?

Another screw-up 

If you turn to L-6, the continuation of Chick's column, you might have trouble finding it: The word "Stile" (Staff Writer Charles Stile) appears instead of "Road." I guess the Road Worrier is not well-liked by the layout or news copy editor who put the wrong word there.

Page L-3 carries the fourth story in six days on tenants returning to the Prospect Avenue high-rise in Hackensack where the parking garage collapsed five months ago. There is a lot more going on in the city that is never reported by the former Hackensack daily.

Keeping alive a dead story

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What do you do when you have important state news that isn't easily illustrated and a Cold War-era story that didn't amount to a hill of beans when it broke about two weeks ago?

If you're the editor of The Record of Woodland Park -- locked into having a large color photo on Page 1 every day, in a desperate attempt to match the impact of color TV -- you play up the dead story with everything in your bag of journalistic tricks -- even though the actual spy swap occurred Thursday and led the paper Friday.


You make sure your news copy desk uses such headline words as "fast-paced" and "whirlwind," then you blow up a  photo of one plane on the tarmac and another leaving a European airport (A-1 today). Boy, that's an exciting photo.

Then you shove inside real news -- that the BP oil gusher in the Gulf may be stopped soon -- and hope North Jersey readers don't notice the absence of Hackensack, Teaneck and Englewood news, not to mention lack of coverage of a bunch of other towns among the 90 or so in your circulation area.

For these kinds of boneheaded editorial decisions, Frank "Castrato" Scandale was promoted to vice president by clueless Publisher Stephen A. Borg, and presumably given a raise. And no one bothers to ask head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes why so many of her reporters -- including Jean Rimbach, Shawn Boburg and Monsy Alvarado -- allow days, weeks, months, even years to separate their lame stories.


I'm sure readers today would have been far more interested in reading about Governor Christie's privatization plans, such as making motorists pay for emissions tests (A-3). That's A-1 news in my book -- not a bunch of laughable Russians. In fact, I'd be more interested in reading about the young Russians and other foreign workers who staff Jersey Shore resorts and highway rest stops, but that would require old-fashioned legwork.

Why do that when you can slap a wire service story and photo all over the front page? (One of the aircraft is operated by Vision Airlines. Just reminds you of how little vision Scandale, Sykes and all the other overpaid editors have.)

A reader's letter today (A-9) notes the former Hackensack daily missed the 100th anniversary of the cornerstone laying for the imposing Bergen County Courthouse (photo), whose dome is visible from the long-empty, fourth-floor newsroom at 150 River St., Hackensdack. You can just imagine what else  the crack local staff has missed -- in a continuing disservice to readers.


On the front of Local, a story on town officials' mixed reviews for all-electric MINI prototypes makes no mention of the Nissan LEAF, an electric car that will be going on sale this year, with full-market roll-out by 2012, compared to 2013 for the smaller but more expensive and far-from-flawless BMW models.

Friday, July 9, 2010

With a possible new lease on life for the Xanadu retail-entertainment complex, and a sensational New Jersey inheritance battle among billionaires, does anyone really care about those buffoonish Russian "spies" or that a professional basketball player will be playing in Miami, not New York or New Jersey?


Friday's front page was dominated by LeBron James and the swap of those 10 Russian suspects for other alleged spies. How do those stories affect my life or the lives of tens of thousands of other readers? They don't.

In Local, Staff Writer Giovanna Fabiano has two stories about Englewood, in contrast to no stories for days and weeks at a time, but there is no Hackensack or Teaneck municipal news. 

The front page of The Hackensack Chronicle, the weekly delivered with The Record of Woodland Park on Fridays, reports on the swearing in of a new mayor in Hackensack on July 1. I didn't see that story in the former Hackensack daily on July 2.


In his review of Hamilton & Ward, a high-end steakhouse in Paterson's new mall, Food Editor Bill Pitcher inexplicably discusses the source of salmon, but ignores the origin of the steaks. We are left to guess whether they are naturally raised or stuffed with antibiotics, hormones and animal byproducts.

I also feel he is being unfair by citing the Silk City's "reputation for being a rough spot after dark." That certainly is not the case for South Paterson, the neighborhood with Middle Eastern restaurants, bakeries and markets. Has he ever visited that section -- day or night?


His rating of the steakhouse -- two and a half stars -- is diluted by the two stars Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung gave a chain restaurant on the highway in Wayne. In fact, her generosity in rating the faux-Caribbean Bahama Breeze (Page F-22 on Friday) will continue to hurt the credibility of all restaurant reviews in Better Living.