The owner of New Jersey’s largest newspaper says it will stop publishing a daily print version of the paper early next year, but its online version will continue.
The Newark Morning Ledger Co said the decision announced Wednesday was due to rising costs, decreasing circulation and reduced demand for print copies of the Star-Ledger. Two other daily New Jersey newspapers are also expected to end their print publications in the coming months, while a fourth daily newspaper, the Jersey Journal, is expected to cease publication altogether.
The news that a Pulitzer prize-winning newspaper is going online-only comes during a rough week for US media, as a quarter of a million people reportedly unsubscribed from the Washington Post after its billionaire owner, Jeff Bezos, blocked the paper’s editorial board from endorsing any candidate for president. Thousands have also unsubscribed from the Los Angeles Times after its billionaire owner, Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong, made a similar non-endorsement decision.
The protest cancellations come after economic struggles for the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and other news outlets in the past year. In the midst of what has widely been described as a historically important presidential campaign, layoffs hit journalists at national outlets as diverse as the Wall Street Journal and Vice Media, which laid off hundreds of journalists and announced it would no longer publish content on its website.
But newsroom cuts have perhaps been the most severe at the local level in the US: between 2005 and 2023, the country lost one-third of its newspapers and two-thirds of its newspaper journalists, according to a Northwestern University study.
An average of 2.5 newspapers closed each week in 2023 compared with two a week the previous year, a reflection of an ever-worsening advertising climate, the Northwestern study found. Most were weekly publications, in areas with few or no other sources for news.
While digital outlets have emerged to fill some voids, they’re closing at roughly the same rate as new ones start, the report found.
The Star-Ledger’s decision to shift to online publication only has broader ripple effects on the New Jersey media landscape. Newark Morning Ledger Co said it will close its Montville production facility in February 2025, the same time the newspaper’s print version will cease.
The closing of that facility means another daily newspaper, the Jersey Journal, will cease publication on 1 February after operating for 157 years.
The Jersey City-based newspaper, which is owned by the Evening Journal Association, outsourced its printing several years ago to the Star-Ledger. Journal officials said on Wednesday the paper could not remain in business following the production facility’s closure, noting it would likely face increased costs with a new printer and its circulation is small and dependent on newsstand sales.
“We fought as hard as we can for as long as we could,” said David Blomquist, the Journal’s editor and publisher. “An online-only publication simply would not have enough scale to support the strong, politically independent journalism that has distinguished the Journal.”
In another related matter, Advance Local, which owns NJ Advance Media and NJ.com, the home of the Star-Ledger’s online version, announced on Wednesday it’s ending print publication of two daily newspapers – the Times of Trenton and the South Jersey Times – and the weekly Hunterdon County Democrat. The two daily newspapers will continue to be published online each day.
The final print editions of the Star-Ledger, Times of Trenton and South Jersey Times will be published on 2 February. The final weekly print edition of the Hunterdon County Democrat will be published on 30 January, and its subscribers will have access to the Star-Ledger online newspaper.
“Today’s announcement represents the next step into the digital future of journalism in New Jersey,” said Steve Alessi, president of NJ Advance Media. “It’s important to emphasize that this is a forward-looking decision that allows us to invest more deeply than ever in our journalism and in serving our communities.”
Alessi said that ceasing print publication will allow NJ Advance Media to reallocate resources to strengthen its core newsroom. He said that the newsroom has more reporters than it did a year ago and has plans to continue to grow in 2025 as the organization looks to bolster reporting in previously under-covered areas of the state.
