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BY CAROL ANN CAMPBELL
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
PRINCETON — Swift and stunning cutbacks at New Jersey newspapers mean fewer reporters are covering local and state governments, a situation that could allow political corruption to flourish and voters to become less informed, according to speakers at a conference Friday on “The Newspaper Crisis.”
In the past two years the newspaper industry in New Jersey — and elsewhere in the nation — has been hit with striking drops in revenue as advertising dollars migrate to the internet. The result has been slashed newsrooms, closed bureaus and bankrupt news organizations.
The New York Times closed its Trenton bureau. The owners of the Philadelphia Inquirer and The Philadelphia Daily News, which cover South Jersey, filed for bankruptcy. So did the Journal Register Company, owner of the Trentonian. The Star-Ledger lost 40 percent of its editorial staff through extensive buy-outs late last year.
“Who will perform the monitoring and investigative reporting that has traditionally been provided by newspapers? What happens when they disappear?” asked Richard F. Keevey, director of the Princeton University Policy Research Institute, which sponsored the conference. Keevey said on-line sites that have emerged in recent years do not currently have the resources to produce good investigation journalism.Jim Willse, editor of The Star-Ledger, told the audience that the Newark-based newspaper lost half its ad revenue in the past two years.
‘There is not a business on the face of the earth that can survive that kind of hit,” Willse said.
Nonetheless, the veteran newspaper editor said the newspaper will emerge from the painful cutbacks. He foresees a profitable future and said the paper can support a robust news staff that will continue “shining a light in dark places,” he said, referring to the role of investigation journalism.
Speakers said the stakes are high. Research shows a link between the demise of a community's newspaper and lower voter turnout, as well as a reduction in the number of people who run for public office.
Charles Layton, senior writer for the American Journalism Review and former editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer, cited steep drops in the number of reporters covering the nation's state capitols. He said, for instance, that in 1998 some 32 reporters covered the State House in Trenton. The latest figure is 15.
“The size of news staffs covering state houses has declined just as the size of state governments has increased,” he said, adding that lobbyists to state government have become more organized and better funded.
