Gannett purchases The Record of Bergen County

The Record in Bergen County, a major North Jersey media company, was purchased Wednesday by the parent company of the Courier-Post and The Daily Journal and four other New Jersey newspapers.

The acquisition by Gannett Co. Inc. creates New Jersey's largest media company with a network of journalists stretching from Bergen County in the north to Cumberland County in the south. It is expected to give readers of the newspapers and digital sites access to more statewide news.

“Gannett continues to execute on its local market growth strategy,” Robert Dickey, president and CEO of Gannett, said. "This latest acquisition positions the company to be the leading news provider in the state of New Jersey.”

In addition to The Record, which is based in Woodland Park, Gannett will add the Herald News, and its affiliated digital properties, the Community News Group, the Magazine Group, and the Events Group.

They will join the Asbury Park Press based in Neptune, the Daily Record in Morristown, the Courier News in Somerville, the Home News Tribune, which covers Middlesex County, the Courier-Post in Cherry Hill and The Daily Journal in Vineland.

“We will continue to build upon its legacy of strong journalism, successful community engagement and effectively connecting advertisers to the audiences they seek,” said John Zidich, president of Domestic Publishing for Gannett. “We are focused on being the best news organization in the state.”

Gannett executives said the acquisition would add $90 million in annual revenue. The price was not disclosed.

The Record, founded in 1895, has been owned by the Borg family since 1930. It has a storied history. It won a Pulitzer Prize in 1971 for commentary, and it has been a finalist three times – in 2001 for photography, in 2007 for local reporting and for its heroin coverage in 2013. It was lauded more recently for its groundbreaking stories about Bridgegate, the bridge closure scandal in Fort Lee.

North Jersey Media Group has built a vast audience. The Record has nearly a half million readers a day. Its 49 community papers are sent to a total of 778,000 households across Bergen, Passaic, Essex, Morris, Hudson and Sussex counties. And its website, NorthJersey.com, receives about 14 million page views a month.

“It is a bittersweet day for the Borg family as we are leaving the business after 86 years,” Malcolm A. Borg, chairman of the board, North Jersey Media Group, said. “However, we are very pleased that Gannett is acquiring The Record and North Jersey’s other media outlets. We have great respect for Gannett, which is strong in the competitive New York/New Jersey market. We think this is a great fit culturally for North Jersey and for Gannett as both are fully dedicated to fostering outstanding journalism, delivering for our advertisers and helping to build better communities.”

The merger comes as the newspaper industry has lost revenue to the Internet and tries to reinvent itself to reach readers online. Family-owned newspapers face a tougher road. They don't always have the money that their larger counterparts have to invest heavily in technology, and, like any business, they may not have family members in successive generations who are interested in the family business, said Rick Edmonds, a media business analyst for The Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida.

The Record suits Gannett, Edmonds said. It is a mid-sized, metropolitan paper. It has a reputation for high-quality journalism. And it is close to other Gannett-owned papers, meaning it can share resources.

"I think it’s a good fit in a number of ways," Edmonds said.

McLean, Virginia-based Gannett owns USA TODAY and 109 dailies in 34 states and Guam. The publisher split from its television and digital properties a year ago. Since then, it created the USA TODAY NETWORK, in which its 4,000 journalists nationwide write not only for their own newspapers, but also USA TODAY NETWORK.

Gannett, which emerged from its split with no debt, has acquired the Journal Media Group, whose newspapers include the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tennessee. It invested in Billy Penn, an online news site that covers Philadelphia. And in recent weeks, it purchased ReachLocal Inc. an online marketing and solutions company for small to mid-sized businesses.

Michael L. Diamond; 732-643-4038; mdiamond@gannettnj.com