''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, sports a ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, 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 of ...

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 Hudson may refer to: People * Hudson (given name) * Hudson (surname) * Henry Hudson, English explorer * Hudson (footballer, born 1986), Hudson Fernando Tobias de Carvalho, Brazilian football right-back * Hudson (footballer, born 1988), Hudso ...

and

Passaic Passaic ( or ) is a city in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city had a total population of 70,537, ranking as the 16th largest municipality in New Jersey and an increase of 656 from the 69,7 ...

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 wh ...

''. ''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 The ''Herald News'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper headquartered in Woodland Park, New Jersey, that focuses on the Passaic County, New Jersey area. Today's ''Herald News'' is descended from several papers, but did not come to be until two Pass ...

''. 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

, 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 Passaic County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of New Jersey that is part of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States census, the population of Passaic County was enumerated at 524,118, an increase of 22,892 (4.6%) from t ...

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 ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

. 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 ''

'', which is published as a Passaic County edition of ''The Record''.

Gannett Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. , 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

In the aftermath of the

September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

on the

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may refer to: Buildings * List of World Trade Centers * World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, a photographer for ''The Record'',

Thomas E. Franklin Thomas E. Franklin (born 1966) is an American photographer for ''The Bergen Record'', best known for his photograph ''Raising the Flag at Ground Zero'', which depicts firefighters raising the American flag at the World Trade Center after the Sep ...

, took a photograph of three firefighters raising an American flag 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 * Fundra ...

''. 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.

References

External links

The Record's and North Jersey Media Group (parent company) website''The Record'' website
(Archive) {{DEFAULTSORT:Record (Bergen County), The Record, The Record, The Record, The Publications established in 1895 Mass media in Hudson County, New Jersey 1895 establishments in New Jersey