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.

Willse provided an insider's view of the changes at a major American newspaper. He described losing veteran reporters with whom he worked “shoulder to shoulder.” Most editors and reporters left on Dec. 31, a day Willse called one of the worst of his professional life.

“It was like a mass funeral,” he recalled.

The situation was far different when Willse joined the newspaper in 1995 with a charter to improve the newspaper's quality.

“We hired 60 new journalists. We set out to make a good newspaper. For the next 10 years we were riding high,” he said. The newspaper won two Pulitzer Prizes and dozens of major national awards.

“Then the plague came with a ferocity and speed we did not see coming,” he said.

Since the buyouts, the newspaper has hired less experienced reporters at lower salaries to cover the news along with veteran staff. He said the paper has been producing news videos and has increased local coverage.

“Our watchdog role remains as important as ever,” he said.

Speaking generally, he said newspapers in the future may publish fewer days, perhaps just Thursday, Friday and Sunday, and the product may be physically smaller.

Others at the conference talked about new journalism models, such as philanthropic news services, including ProPublica, an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism.

Keevey, the moderator, mentioned this site, NewJerseyNewsroom.com, created by 40 former Star-Ledger journalists.

“Will sites like this be the model for future news outlets?” he asked.

Another new model is MinnPost.com, in Minnesota. CEO and Editor Joel Kramer said the non-profit website continues to search for a sustaining business model. It now relies on members who support the service, much like National Public Radio, as well as fund raisers and foundation grants.

“Good journalism is expensive,” he said.

Others said journalism cannot thrive with only low-paid or un-paid journalists.

“There is no crisis in news,” said Dustan McNichol, a former reporter at The Star-Ledger who described his efforts to create a news service to cover Trenton.  “The crisis has been in trying to make journalism a sustainable career,” he said.