Does big cutback in food coverage serve advertisers?

The old headquarters of North Jersey Media Group and The Record in Hackensack is now used primarily as a parking lot for attorneys, jurors and visitors to the Bergen County Courthouse a few blocks away ($5 per car). Many courthouse visitors are finding free parking elsewhere.By VICTOR E. SASSONEditorUnder Publisher Stephen A. Borg, food coverage in The Record has declined drastically -- only to be replaced by highly promotional stories about the...

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Borgs are selling the front page to highest bidders

Nov. 16, 2013: Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood.By VICTOR E. SASSONEditorWhy are shoppers desperate for a bargain and how big retailing chains do on Thanksgiving front page news in The Record today and every year around the holidays?Does every advertising contract sold by the Borg publishing family include a clause guaranteeing news coverage to Macy's, Target, Walmart and the other retailers whose glossy fliers are keeping the Woodland...

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Borgs are getting fatter on backs of low-wage workers

The warm, cozy interior of the restored train station in Ramsey, above and below. The ticket window was closed permanently this year, but commuters can wait for trains out of the weather, as well as borrow something to read from the public library. Hackensack, a far larger community with far more rail users, hasn't had anything like this for many years.By Victor E. SassonEditorToday's Thanksgiving edition of The Record is stuffed with the fliers...

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King Christie is going after minorities once again

What disability would allow someone to install tile and park legally in a handicapped space at 24 Hour Fitness in Paramus? This seemingly able bodied driver was at the gym before 9 a.m. Tuesday, above and below. By Victor E. SassonEditorYou could make a good case that Chris Christie is a racist, starting with his removal of the state Supreme Court's only African-American justice only a few months after the governor was inaugurated in 2010.Are...

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Dull and uninteresting -- even on Page 1

A group of clouds -- real and reflected -- almost makes you think The Modern, a 47-story residential tower in Fort Lee, is transparent. The building is the first of two.By Victor E. SassonEditorWhen the editor of a general interest newspaper gets desperate, he runs front-page headlines like the one leading The Record today:All eyes on N.J.'s online wagerOf course, Governor Christie and state treasury officials are the only ones who care whether this...

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When ads are more readable than so-called news

The beach at Cape May, a jewel of the Jersey shore.By Victor E. SassonEditorThe danger of wrapping a supermarket flier around the main news section is that readers might find Thanksgiving promotions more interesting than anything a turkey like Staff Writer John Brennan has to report about horse racing (A-1).And what is the publisher of The Record trying to say by wrapping a hearing-aid advertisement around today's Sports section?Important newsThere...

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Editors shrug at Christie's fiscal disaster

The Sports section and virtually all of the advertising inserts and sections that came with The Record today go straight into the recycling bin.By Victor E. SassonEditorOn Page 1 of The Record today, readers find more evidence of the fiscal disaster caused by Governor Christie's unyielding no-tax policies:A $115 million revenue shortfall, up from $62 million last month; a loss of 7,100 jobs in the last four months; and the second-highest number of...

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Worst U.S. president backs N.J.'s worst governor

A rainy day in Hackensack.By Victor E. SassonEditorGovernor Christie continues to tell lies about his first term -- all of which are swallowed whole by The Record of Woodland Park -- so it's no surprise he sought the endorsement of former President George W. Bush.W, you'll remember, told some whoppers of his own to get us into the ruinous war in Iraq (A-1).Christie and Bush have other things in common besides being Republican and telling the Big...

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Suckers! You voted for an absentee governor

This eyesore at 177 Euclid Ave. in Hackensack looks much the same as it did when I moved into the neighborhood in August 2007, except the furniture piled on the front porch was removed a few years ago. Ignoring complaints to the city's Building Department and visits by city inspectors, this homeowner doesn't appear interested in finishing the renovation project.By Victor E. SassonEditorOn Tuesday, The Record named seven states Governor Christie plans...

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Editors hide Christie's brand of voter suppression

A Page 1 story in The Record today claims the developer and architect for twin 47-story residential towers in Fort Lee "spent nine hours sketching ... their vision" of what they hope will be the gateway to North Jersey. The account doesn't explain why the first building, above, resembles little more than an enormous, glass tombstone.By Victor E. SassonEditorThe all-seeing and all-knowing editors of The Record haven't bothered to explain the historically...

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