What once was New Jersey’s premiere print journalism, The Star-Ledger, stopped printing after 86 years on February 2nd, 2025 and will shift to an online-only format. Now, newspaper racks will not have a copy of news from tiny towns to big cities for people to pick up a copy. The Star Ledger and many other New Jersey newspapers will stop printing and only be available online. Similarly, Star Ledger’s sister publication, The Jersey Journal, will cease to exist to print or be online in Hudson County, NJ leaving Hudson County without a newspaper. Three other newspapers, The Times of Trenton, The South Jersey Times, and the Hudson County Democrat, will soon stop printing and only offer digital news.
The Ledger started in 1939 and continued to leave a mark on New Jersey’s source of news and communication about everything from elections, environmental campaigns, and helping the public gain support for the construction of the Meadowlands Sports Complex. Rising costs for printing and distribution made the print issue unsustainable.
The decline in print version of journalism, has been felt in the United States as well as strongly in New Jersey. According to Zachary Metzger, director of Medill’s State of Local News Project, since 2005 New Jersey has lost 129 papers, which is 58 percent of its print options, which is more than any other state.
The Star-Ledger was a powerhouse for New Jersey’s news. It won a Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for photography after a deadly Seton Hall dorm fire. It won its second Pulitzer Prize 2005 for its coverage of NJ’s Governor Jim McGreevy’s resignation. According to the Alliance for Audited Media, in 2005 nearly 600,000 households bought The Ledger on Sundays. By 2023, Sunday deliveries to households had fallen to 86,000. In 2024, circulation had dropped to an additional 21 percent.
According to Steve Alessi, president of NJ Advance Media Group, which operates the Ledger’s online site, when Alessi was asked what he felt about how people feel about the transition, he stated, ‘People are nostalgic and upset.’ ‘You’re losing something. We totally understand that.’
NJ Advance Media Group runs The Ledger’s online site, NJ.com. Now, NJ.com will become the prime source of information for NJ citizens as the online news site. NJ.com will remain major reporting and employing journalists from across the state. NJ.com was ranked as one of the the top local news site nationally as it received over 16 million unique visitors.
In Bernardsville, members of the community read the Bernardsville News either receiving physical copies on Thursdays or reading the online site, owned by New Jersey Hills Media Group. The paper dates back to 1897 and has a history of connecting members of the community.
Michelle Ray, a member of Bernardsville’s community has been reading the Bernardsville News since 1997. She reads the news every week to keep up with local issues and events. Ray states, “For me, it is quite important [to read the local news], second only to keeping tabs on global and US news.”
With the investment in more digital reporting, the papers will aim to provide high-quality news to readers. Although many are sad to see the Star-Ledger go, the change will reflect how people consume media in New Jersey and beyond.
