Holy cow, our city's weekly newspaper The Hoboken Reporter just got shorter and wider! It lost 3" in length and gained 3/8" in width, to be exact.
Does this mean the reporting gets shorter and wider, too? No!
This newly-proportioned Hoboken Reporter heralds a complete revamping from it's former heavy-handed editorial voice/pro-development/ political tilt to a focus on community journalism. It is a sea change for the paper and I suspect for its employees.
The new owner, Newspaper Media Group, is a family-run enterprise. It was founded in 2016 by CEO Rich Donnelly, whose bio states he is "committed to providing excellent journalism and community involvement through its products." The company is a labor of love for the family; son Dan's bio states: "the spirit of community newspapers is something he greatly believes in and he is proud of the news content that is reported each and every day." In two short years, Newspaper Media Group has bought over 50 community newspapers serving 1.6 million households each week in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and surrounding areas.
What does this mean for Hoboken?
No more hatchet jobs and/or private audiences to plant stories for corrupt Hoboken politicians. No quid pro quo for advertisers. Not election-eve stories to influence the vote. This paper will be straight -up journalism, focused on the Hoboken community. Say good-bye to news with editorial bias.* Say hello to objective journalism.
*Not the beat reporter's fault. The heavy-handed editor would "add/remove/change" content.
So, expect it to take some time to transition from what it was. It is easy to change the size of the paper. The culture within the paper will have to transition too, and I think some community outreach would help.
But, it's all good.
Hope you're right, but it looks like a throw away circular.
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