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newspapers

The Future of Local News in New Jersey? It’s Adapting.

One of the biggest unresolved issues in New Jersey is where governments will publish legal notices now that newspapers are ending their print editions. For over a century, state and local governments have been required to publish public notices – such as hearings, zoning changes and budget reports – in print newspapers to ensure transparency and provide a verifiable public record. But this system is breaking down.

Lights out: A final word from N.J.’s only editorial board

Marc Pfeiffer, the associate director of the Bloustein School at Rutgers, put it this way in a new report about the future of journalism in New Jersey: “Despite some contemporary criticisms of (editorial opinion),” he wrote, “it has, over many decades, helped generate public discourse and solve complex and controversial issues facing our society.”

Public Policy and Surveillance Tech

Municipalities should have a sense of the technology’s costs (financial, societal, and reputational) versus its benefits. Financial costs include staff management time and storage fees; they will rise with the volume of data stored. Societal and reputational costs may come into play when deciding what physical locations warrant surveillance and if the technology is obvious or invisible to those affected by it.

Op-Ed: The future of New Jersey news is digital — and that’s OK

Earlier this month, I completed a report titled “The Future of New Jersey Journalism: Evolution, Not Extinction,” and it was recently released by the Center for Urban Policy Research at Rutgers’ Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. In it, I discussed the current environment facing New Jersey journalism, and recommendations on how it can thrive. I also analyzed the current debate about advertising legal notices in newspapers.

Pfeiffer Discusses Modernizing Legal Notice Requirements

While the need to modernize legal notices has been discussed in policy circles for years, we now face a hard deadline to update state law. However, rushing to implement permanent changes would be a mistake.

Commentary: No news is bad news for democracy

Faculty Fellow Linda Stamato highlights the critical challenges faced by local journalism in the United States, and advocates for nonprofit journalism as a potential solution.

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