Flowers and a replica of The Star-Ledger sit on the sales space the place the ultimate scene of the ultimate episode of the HBO present “The Sopranos” was filmed, at Holsten’s restaurant, on June 20, 2013 in Bloomfield, N.J. “Sopranos” star James Gandolfini, who performed troubled mob boss Tony Soprano, died the day earlier than at age 51 in Rome.
Andrew Burton / Getty Pictures
Throughout the river from New York, the destiny of New Jersey’s Star-Ledger — learn by fictional mob boss Tony Soprano — and The Jersey Journal is leaving locals with no bodily paper and a few journalists, paperboys and printers with out jobs.
The Star-Ledger goes online-only and The Jersey Journal is closing up store altogether, stories NJ.com, which posts content material from each, amongst different retailers. NJ Advance Media owns The Jersey Journal, The Star-Ledger and N.J.com.
“I’m heartbroken,” mentioned Margaret Doman, on the foot of a cluster of mushrooming buildings in Jersey Metropolis, inside eyesight of Manhattan.
“The Jersey Journal ceasing publication is like losing an old friend,” mentioned one letter to the editor.
The Jersey Journal constructing in Jersey Metropolis, N.J. on January 30, 2025.
CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP through Getty Pictures
With 17 staff and fewer than 15,000 copies offered each day, The Jersey Journal couldn’t face up to the physique blow that was the closure of the printworks it shared with The Star-Ledger, New Jersey’s largest each day, which works all-digital this weekend.
The Star-Ledger’s president, Wes Turner, pointed to an op-ed on NJ.com that said the closure was compelled by “rising costs, decreasing circulation and reduced demand for print.”
However the scoops didn’t save the each day, as gross sales plummeted and the papere went by a number of rounds of painful buyouts.
With the swap to all-digital, even its editorial board will probably be abolished, introduced one in every of its members, Tom Moran.
Native newspapers in decline throughout the nation
The decline of the native press has been a gradual, painful dying throughout the USA.
They’ve been victims of declining readership and the consolidation of titles right into a handful of company masters.
“Voter participation tends to decline. Split-ticket voting tends to decline. Incumbents are reelected more often. Rates of corruption can increase. Rates of police misconduct can increase.”
Steve Alessi, president of NJ Advance Media, wrote on NJ.com that the termination of print “represents the next step into the digital future of journalism in New Jersey” and promised new funding for the web site, which claims over 15 million distinctive month-to-month guests.
“There are not a whole lot of outlets keeping tabs on local affairs already,” he mentioned, calling The Star-Ledger an “institution.”
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