Marty Gottlieb has little to show for 2 years at the helm

This morning, a path had been cleared so commuters wouldn't have to climb over the snow at a bus stop across the street from Sears in Hackensack, above, but that wasn't the case at another bus stop around the corner on Anderson Street, below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

This month, former New York Times editor Marty Gottlieb is celebrating two years at the helm of The Record of Woodland Park, and readers can only guess at what he lists as his accomplishments.

Most of the lazy editors and burned-out columnists he inherited are still in place, including the error-prone Road Warrior, Staff Writer John Cichowski.

Except for a renewed focus on Hackensack's municipal affairs (L-1), the Local section often is dominated by police news and accident photos, no matter how minor.

If it wasn't for the Bridgegate scandal, the paper would still be acting as if it had been hired by Governor Christie to do his public relations.

Today's paper

The GOP bully was sworn in for a second term on Tuesday after winning the Nov. 5 election -- the lowest turnout of any gubernatorial contest in state history (A-1).

Given how Christie has waged war on the middle and working classes, isn't it sweet that an "intense winter storm" canceled "the image-building ball at Ellis Island" (A-1).

Longer stories

Gottlieb is known for often handling Page 1 stories, which have grown in length and complexity, not unlike what appears in The Times.

But the level of editing by The Record's assignment and copy desks is so low that the front-page has become known for tortured, poorly written paragraphs that have more twists and turns than an old river.

Mediocre editors

The merger of The Record and Herald News newsrooms brought on board a number of mediocre editors who have dumbed down content, including photo captions and headlines.

Fact-checking is almost non-existent, and for every correction published on A-2, readers know there are five or six more that will never be acknowledged.

Day after day, news and feature stories are published with huge holes, and even basic information is missing.

Today, for example, an interesting story on spices that appears on the Better Living front discusses AK Market in Paterson, but readers can search high and low and not find the shop's address or telephone number (BL-1 and BL-5).