U.S. newspaper popularized by 'The Sopranos' to cease printing

by Andréa BAMBINO

Two longstanding US city newspapers, including one immortalized in "The Sopranos," will vanish from newsstands leaving Jersey City without printed news as the media struggles against headwinds nationwide.

Across the river from New York, the rapid demise of New Jersey's Star-Ledger -- read by fictional mob boss Tony Soprano -- and The Jersey Journal has left locals without a physical paper and some journalists, paperboys and printers without jobs.

"I'm heartbroken," said Margaret Doman, at the foot of a cluster of mushrooming buildings in Jersey City, within eyesight of Manhattan.

"I use The Jersey Journal for a lot of things -- not just to read the news, but to post information, and to get in tune with what's going on around the town," said the long-time resident and community activist.

"The Jersey Journal ceasing publication is like losing an old friend," said one letter to the editor.

In the thick of Journal Square, named for the daily founded in 1867, "Jersey Journal" in giant red letters adorns the building that once housed the newsroom, long since displaced.

With 17 employees and fewer than 15,000 copies sold daily, the Jersey Journal could not withstand the body blow that was the closure of the printworks it shared with The Star-Ledger, New Jersey's largest daily, which goes all-digital this weekend.

The Star-Ledger's president Wes Turner pointed to an op-ed on NJ.com that stated the closure was forced by "rising costs, decreasing circulation and reduced demand for print."

The newspaper, which featured in the iconic New Jersey mafia TV series, won the coveted Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for a series of articles on the political upheavals of then-governor Jim McGreevey.

But the scoops did not save the daily, as sales plummeted and the title went through several rounds of painful buyouts.

With the switch to all-digital, even its editorial board will be abolished, announced one of its members, Tom Moran.

- 'Tangible consequences' -

The decline of the local press has been a slow, painful death across the United States.

According to the latest report from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, more than one-third of newspapers -- 3,300 in all -- have gone out of print since 2005.

They have been victims of declining readership and the consolidation of titles into a handful of corporate masters.

"When a newspaper disappears, there's a number of tangible consequences," said the report's director, Zach Metzger.

"Voter participation tends to decline. Split-ticket voting tends to decline. Incumbents are reelected more often. Rates of corruption can increase. Rates of police misconduct can increase."

Fewer local papers and the domination of major national issues in the news cycle are also often given as reasons for the rampant polarization of American society between left and right.

Steve Alessi, president of NJ Advance Media -- which owns The Jersey Journal and The Star-Ledger -- wrote on NJ.com that the termination of print "represents the next step into the digital future of journalism in New Jersey" and promised new investment for the website, which claims over 15 million unique monthly visitors.

He touted several flagship investigative projects on political extremism, as well as mismanagement in the region's private schools, the production of podcasts, and newsletters to attract new readers.

"There is still a digital divide across the country... My concern is for people who are not digitally acclimated, they still go to their public libraries or a newsstand to see a physical copy of the paper," said Kenneth Burns, president of New Jersey Society of Professional Journalists.

"There are not a whole lot of outlets keeping tabs on local affairs already," he said, calling The Star-Ledger an "institution."

© Agence France-Presse