''The Record'' (also called ''The North Jersey Record'', ''The Bergen Record'', ''The Sunday Record'' (Sunday edition) and formerly ''The Bergen Evening Record'') is a
newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sport ...
in
New Jersey
New Jersey is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York (state), New York; on the ea ...
, United States. Serving
Bergen
Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula o ...
,
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
, Hudson and Passaic counties in northern New Jersey, it has the second-largest circulation of the state's daily newspapers, behind ''
The Star-Ledger
''The Star-Ledger'' is the largest circulated newspaper in the U.S. state of New Jersey and is based in Newark. It is a sister paper to '' The Jersey Journal'' of Jersey City, ''The Times'' of Trenton and the ''Staten Island Advance'', all of w ...
''.
''The Record'' was under the ownership of the Borg family from 1930 to 2016, and the family went on to form North Jersey Media Group, which eventually bought its competitor, the '' Herald News''. Both papers are now owned by
Gannett Company
Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.Hackensack with a bureau in Wayne. Following the purchase of the competing ''Herald News'' of Passaic, both papers began centralizing operations in what is now Woodland Park, where ''The Record'' is currently based.
History
The newspaper was first published as ''The Evening Record'', on June 5, 1895, by Evan G. Runner. Based on Main Street in Hackensack, Runner had two investors initially, Frank Cook and George Alden, and went through many others until 1920. At that time, a group of eight investors bought the company, which had changed its name to ''The Evening Record and Bergen County Herald''.
Two of the 1920 investors were Matt C. Ely and John Borg. Ely and Borg bought out the other investors, and partnered as publisher and editor for a number of years. The name was simplified in 1922 to ''The Bergen Evening Record.'' When Ely became ill in 1929, Borg bought out his interest as well. Other sources have Borg, a Wall Street financier who gave up his previous business upon getting into news, buying Ely out in 1930.
Second generation
John Borg retired in 1949, but his son Donald had been involved in the newspaper for many years, and took over his role.
In 1951, the paper moved from Main Street to an expanded office on River Street.
From 1952 to 1963 the circulation of ''The Record'' doubled and its coverage changed from local to regional. It was one of the papers whose editorial position was in favor of the Metropolitan Regional Council (MRC) In 1960, the newspaper changed its name to simply ''The Record'', and expanded coverage beyond the county, including the opening of a Trenton bureau. The company name remained ''The Bergen Evening Record Corporation''.
Third generation
In 1964, ''The Record'' bought the struggling ''Paterson Call'' and renamed it ''The Morning Call''. Donald Borg's sons, Malcolm and Gregory, with experience at ''The Record,'' were made assistant publishers at the Passaic County paper. It was a publishing success, but continued to be a financial failure. The Borgs sold it in 1969. (They would open a news bureau for Passaic County about a decade later.)
1971 was a critical year for ''The Record''. Malcolm took over business management of the company, and Gregory became chairman and the paper's editor. That year William Caldwell, long-time editorialist, received a Pulitzer Prize. Also, the company entered the television business, buying a four-station company named Gateway Communications.
1973 was also a key year in the growth of the organization, as the company acquired other newspapers from The Reporter Newspapers of Toms River and bought Freehold News Transcript. A holding company for the acquired papers, Toms River Publishing Company, was established. The company also established a bureau in
Washington, DC
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.
In 1974, writers in the area voted ''The Record'' first in the categories of writing, editing and local coverage. It provided different local news coverage for various areas in its distribution range.
Donald Borg retired in 1975.
In 1982, the company reorganized with a parent company Macromedia, Inc., and two subsidiaries — Bergen Record Corporation for print media, and Gateway Communications Incorporated for broadcast. In 1983 the paper had a daily circulation of just over 149,000 with its readership described as "upscale".
On September 12, 1988, its afternoon publication and delivery changed to early morning. When combined with more centralized distribution requiring carriers to have automobiles, many
paperboys
A paperboy is someoneoften an older child or adolescentwho distributes printed newspapers to homes or offices on a regular route, usually by bicycle or automobile. In Western nations during the heyday of print newspapers during the early 20th cen ...
were put out of work.
Recession hit in 1989, just as the company amassed a large debt to build a new plant. Cost cutting measures included layoffs, early retirement packages, furloughs, and other actions. The paper recovered to prosperity by 1993.
Fourth generation
Jennifer Borg joined the company in 1995. She is Malcolm's daughter. In 2001, the company flattened its structure, retaining only the Macromedia corporate entity, but renamed to North Jersey Media Group.
In 1996, the paper won the coveted Gerald Loeb Award for its series "Formula for Disaster: The Lodi Explosion" by Michael Moore, Bruce Locklin and Debra Lynn Vial. The series was the catalyst for the creation of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.
In 2011, the paper's headquarters were moved to Woodland Park, the offices of sister paper '' Herald News'', which is published as a Passaic County edition of ''The Record''.Gannett bought the company from the Borgs in 2016.
, Daniel Sforza is the executive editor.
Format and style
The paper's approach to coverage has been described as "read nglike a magazine". Rather than a focus on breaking news on its front page, it features "The Patch," a thematic topic or investigative report.
Iconic September 11 photograph at World Trade Center
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
, a photographer for ''The Record'', Thomas E. Franklin, took a photograph of three firefighters raising an
American flag
The national flag of the United States of America, often referred to as the ''American flag'' or the ''U.S. flag'', consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the c ...
over the rubble of what had been the World Trade Center. This became an iconic photo known as ''
Raising the Flag at Ground Zero
Raising may refer to:
*Raising (linguistics), a syntactic construction
*Raising (phonetics), a sound change
*Raising (metalworking), a metalworking technique
*Barn raising, a community event to erect the wooden framework for a building
*Fundraising ...
''. A follow-up story by Jeannine Clegg, a reporter for ''The Record'', about the flag raising efforts by the firemen that led to the photo appeared in the newspaper on September 14, 2011. ''The Record'' owns the rights to the photograph, but has licensed it in exchange for donations to September 11 causes, as long as the photo is used in a "dignified and proper manner" for non-commercial purposes.
See also
* Mike Kelly, columnist since 1981
* Robert Leckie (1920–2001), rejoined ''The Record'' after returning from
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
.Rohan, Virginia "Robert Leckie's postwar experiences" ''The Record'', May 17, 2010. Accessed August 19, 2013. "Robert Leckie (James Badge Dale) is seen returning to Rutherford, where he courts his pretty neighbor, Vera Keller. He also reapplies for his job as a local sportswriter at The Bergen Evening Record.... As it turns out, he did return to The Bergen Evening Record, not as a sportswriter, but as a feature writer, reports his daughter, Joan Leckie Salvas."
* John R. MacArthur (former reporter)
* John Tierney (former reporter)