The Bergen Record

John Koblin asks, What's the matter with Jersey? "Since the start of summer, The New York Times emptied out its two New Jersey bureaus in Trenton and Newark; in June, The Record of Bergen County announced it would shut down its headquarters and its reporters would be homeless; in July, The Star Ledger announced that it was cutting about a third of its newsroom, and its owners said they would consider selling the paper."

Leon Neyfakh talks to author Jonathan Mahler about his book, The Challenge, which found itself released the same week as its subject, Salim Hamdan, was in the news: "[Mr. Mahler] hadn’t expected the trial so soon, and the timing made him self-conscious. What if readers thought his book, a rigorous chronicle of the Supreme Court case that led up to the trial, was just some thrown-off quickie meant to expire and disappear within a few news cycles?" Plus: Tribunal and Error.  read more »

Last time we checked in with former New Jersey senator Bob Torricelli he wrote that the Record of Bergen County was a very mean newspaper and he delighted in the recent announcement that the paper was shutting down its Hackensack office.

On July 4, the Record's Alfred Doblin responded. "Being lectured on meanness by the likes of Bob Torricelli is akin to Amy Winehouse leading a rehab retreat for substance abusers," he wrote. Fireworks! 

Mr. Torricelli didn't care much for that. He writes today on PolitickerNJ that the Record's response had all "the sophistication of an adolescent rage." But he proceeded to have a bit of a tantrum himself! Choice nasty bits:

• "The Publisher of the Record, Malcolm Borg, is a convicted drunk driver.  read more »
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Bob Torricelli, the former senator from New Jersey who didn't seek re-election after his first term because, well, we know why!, has an interesting view of the reason The Record of Bergen County is having trouble, and it's not, he thinks, the troubled newspaper industry in general. News that the newspaper recently had to close its Hackensack office seemed to delight him because, as he wrote in his column on PolitickerNJ, "somewhere the Record stopped becoming a mirror of the happy suburban life and it became mean."

He's no media expert--although he may be an expert on the Record after all the ink the newspaper gave him back in 2002--but he gives the newspaper 10 years to live.  read more »