Trenton, New Jersey
Trenton is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. It was the capital of the United States from November 1 to December 24, 1784.Mercer County community. The paper in 2020 has a daily circulation of under 8,000 and a Sunday circulation under 7,000. As of August 2020, it was ranked fourteenth in total circulation among newspapers in New Jersey.
History
The paper is owned by
Digital First Media
MNG Enterprises, Inc., doing business as Digital First Media and MediaNews Group, is a Denver, Colorado-based newspaper publisher owned by Alden Global Capital. The company has been growing its portfolio and as of May 2021, owns over 100 newspa ...
, a media company headquartered in
Denver, Colorado
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
, specializing in
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 ...
publishing
Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...
, which owns 75 daily and several hundred non-daily newspapers in the United States. DFM was formed as a merger between Media News Group (MNG) and Journal Register Company (JRC).
In November 2008, DFM announced that some of its newspapers, including ''The Trentonian'', were being put up for sale and the newspaper's daily price increased 43 percent, from 35 cents to 50 cents. Also, the company announced that ''The Trentonian'' would no longer be printed in Trenton beginning in January 2009. It will be printed at a JRC-owned facility in
Exton, Pennsylvania
Exton is a census-designated place (CDP) in West Whiteland Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. Its population was 5,622 at the 2020 census. The Exton Square Mall and Main Street at Exton are both located within Exton along w ...
and delivered to Trenton.
''The Trentonian'' was known as a feisty, gritty tabloid from its start in 1945 when 40 members of the
International Typographical Union
The International Typographical Union (ITU) was a US trade union for the printing trade for newspapers and other media. It was founded on May 3, 1852, in the United States as the National Typographical Union, and changed its name to the Interna ...
broke away from the Trenton ''Times'' to start their own paper.
When The Washington Post Company bought the ''Times'' in 1975, Katharine Graham vowed to make Trenton a one-paper town. She reportedly would later admit that Trenton was her "Vietnam."
The Trentonian generated community outrage and criticism when it published a front page headline, “Roasted Nuts!” about a fire at a state institution housing developmentally-disabled patients.
The book ''Tabloid From Hell'' details what the author considers to be the decline of ''The Trentonian'', with much of the blame directed at Robert M. Jelenic, JRC's former CEO, whom the author says spent too much time on discipline and trivial matters, not enough on quality journalism. A Mary Walton interview in ''American Journalism Review'' was also critical of Jelenic.