Does big cutback in food coverage serve advertisers?

The old headquarters of North Jersey Media Group and The Record in Hackensack is now used primarily as a parking lot for attorneys, jurors and visitors to the Bergen County Courthouse a few blocks away ($5 per car). Many courthouse visitors are finding free parking elsewhere.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Under Publisher Stephen A. Borg, food coverage in The Record has declined drastically -- only to be replaced by highly promotional stories about the restaurants and chefs that advertise heavily in The Record of Woodland Park.

Eating Out on $50, the so-called budget restaurant review written by freelancer Jeff Page, appears to be the latest casualty, ending its monthly run in Better Living without an announcement.

Less space

The fine-dining restaurant review, written by full-time Staff Writer Elisa Ung, continues to cram photos and text into half the space it once commanded in the Better Living tabloid on Fridays, and Ung is restricted to taking one guest, instead of three, to the two dinners she buys.

Even if she were inclined to, Ung has little room to discuss whether restaurants are serving wild-caught fish and naturally raised or grown food.

Organic, shmorganic

Similarly, The Record's monthly Market Basket survey of supermarket prices continues to ignore the revolution in organic food that began with the opening of Whole Foods Market more than 30 years ago.

Doesn't this serve the majority of supermarket and restaurant advertisers who fatten their bottom lines by selling or serving cheaper conventionally grown food or farmed fish filled with harmful antibiotics and preservatives?

Wasted space

Ung continues to waste space in the data box that appears with every review, listing what the restaurant is "good" or "appropriate for," instead of whether it serves naturally raised or grown food.

And on Friday, she wasted two of the 11 paragraphs in her review of Solaia in Englewood on the lousy desserts, even though the vast majority of her readers don't touch the artery clogging, cloyingly sweet stuff out of concern for their waistline and their health (BL-18). 

Ung said Solaia "would be good for relaxing dining in downtown Englewood," but "less appropriate for big, loud groups."

She must think her readers are morons who can't figure that out on their own, and wouldn't the restaurant owner encourage diners to order wine and spirits from his full bar, rather than try to keep them quiet?

Raw or cooked?

Inexplicably, Ung used "sushi-quality fish" -- a term applied to fish served raw -- to describe a pricey grilled sea bass served at Solaia for $29.

As one of his first acts as publisher, Borg signaled an end to serious food coverage when he killed The Record's weekly Food section, promising daily stories about food that the editors were unable to deliver.

It's been all downhill from there.

Today's paper 

The Record doesn't bother with a full story about the third phase of Port Authority toll hikes that kick in on Sunday -- just four paragraphs on Page 1.

Nor does it report a statement from state Assembly Deputy Speaker John S. Wisniewski.

He called the bitstate agency "dysfunctional" and one that operates with "minimal accountability" -- an indirect slam at Governor Christie, who rubber stamped the toll hikes on the George Washington Bridge and other crossings.

Wisniewski said higher tolls come at a time "of stagnant wages and negligible inflation."

The Record also doesn't mention that the heavily discounted E-ZPass off-peak toll for hybrid cars with a Green Pass is going up on Sunday to $5.50 and the carpool discount, available at all hours, increases to $5 -- both are 75 cents more than before.

High-tech traffic system

The major element on today's front page reports on a high-tech traffic management system in the Meadowlands, but doesn't explain whether it can handle the influx of cars expected when American Dream, a huge entertainment and retail complex, opens (A-1).

In Hackensack news, Staff Writer Hannan Adely reports that more than $9,000 has been raised for James Brady, the former homeless man who was penalized for his honesty (Local front).

Brand-new section, same tired voices

Even without dumpsters, The Record's old building and parking lot at 150 River St. have become eyesores. Three years after the Borgs abandoned Hackensack, neither the wealthy family nor their flagship paper have said what will replace it.

The third edition of the new Signature section fills the house with the awful smell of prolonged flatulence from three of The Record's stale columnists.

Readers are so sick of Columnists John Cichowski, Mike Kelly and Bill Ervolino, they are beginning to regard newsprint as little more than toilet paper.

"Signature" suggests a section filled with stories that are as individual as handwriting, but all readers get today is rubber-stamp journalism.

New voices, please

You'd think a new section would sparkle with fresh voices, especially in The Record, which is blessed with many talented writers.

Cichowski, Kelly and Ervolino aren't among them.

On the cover today, Cichowski, the failed Road Warrior columnist, discusses whether it is safer to drive children to school in towns with school busing.

Of course, he doesn't discuss one of the most populous communities in North Jersey without school busing -- Hackensack.

It's hard to tell what Kelly is writing about today in his rambling column on Cresskill's "idle chatter," also on the cover.

On SIG-2, Ervolino's Then & Now column focuses on Prozys on Main Street in Hackensack -- when readers really want to know what is going to replace The Record's vacant headquarters on River Street.

The building and parking lot have become eyesores. 

GOP fanatic

The main story today is about "conservative icon" Scott Garrett, a fanatical Republican whose House district now includes overwhelmingly Democratic towns like Hackensack and Teaneck.

Garrett's opponent -- Teaneck Deputy Mayor Adam Gussen -- is quoted a few times in the overly long profile.

Still, Gussen has been largely ignored by The Record since he won the Democratic primary in June, so it's no wonder he's the underdog.

Bad headline, reporting

The headline -- "CONGRESSIONAL CULTURE CLASH" -- is awful.

The "clash," if you will, is in North Jersey: 

A rabid, white racist who might soon be serving another term representing some of the most diverse towns in the state.

Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson again disappoints with his gentle handling of the right-winger.

Front-page rehash

Today's front page from Editor Marty Gottlieb rehashes recent stories:

The firing of Jay Alpert, one of Governor Christie's cronies; three women who were murdered before their houses were set on fire, and another political column on Christie and Mitt Romney, the GOP's Laurel and Hardy.

Our worst governor

A story based on a news release from the U.S. Census Bureau shows how badly the state economy was lagging in 2011, the second year of the Christie administration (A-1).

More bad economic news came from the Department of the Treasury -- tax collections are $100 million behind the governor's projections (A-1 and A-3).

How long will it take before The Record christens Christie as our worst governor ever?

A toll on readers

A major error appears in a story on A-6 about Port Authority tolls.

Tolls at the agency's bridges and tunnels were raised a year ago to $12 from $8 during peak travel times -- not to $9.50.

Zisaville dispatch

In Local, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes continues to regard the Ken Zisa legal saga as just about the only Hackensack news worth printing (L-1).

The former police chief was sentenced today to 5 years in prison without parole, but Superior Court Judge Joseph S. Conte allowed Zisa to remain free until his appeal is decided, North Jersey.com reported.

A ruling on his appeal might take a year or more, given the state's famously slow court system.