Corrections or additions?
This column was prepared for the March 19, 2003 edition of U.S. 1
Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Richard K. Rein: Critiquing the Competition
Journalism 101, Community Newspapers, gathers for the
fourth and final lecture of the spring term. We have discussed what
an editor looks for in a story, how he or she constructs a single
issue, and what factors should be considered in evaluating a
publication
viewed over several weeks or months. Last week we put U.S. 1 under
the microscope and gave it an A overall, with a few points off for
being a little too predictable and falling a little short of its
“U.S.
Fun” alter ego.
This week we conclude with mini-reviews of the rest of papers in our
area. Our position is anything but impartial, and our impressions
are just that, impressions, not scientific data. But the same could
be said of any number of theater critics who have worked at various
papers over the years. It doesn’t stop them and it won’t stop us.
The Times and the Trentonian. We begin with the dailiesthat come from a rare city that has two competing daily newspapers.Recalling last week’s column, in which we noted that newspapers oftenhave nicknames, we have to report that the Trentonian is still theTrash-tonian in many minds. Sex, crime, and scandal are the mainstaysof the editorial content of the Trentonian, but the formula seemsto be losing ground just as surely as blue collar workers are beingreplaced by computer nerds.Meanwhile the Trentonian duels with its considerably largercompetitor,known years ago as Trenton’s Fine. In fact the old Trenton EveningTimes has given up both the evening and the Trenton part of its title(more insulting to the city of Trenton, in my view, than Trenton StateCollege changing its name to College of New Jersey). But to itscredit,the Times of Trenton (as I refer to it) has maintained a decent amountof municipal and sports coverage. The Times’s lead sports columnist,Harvey Yavener, has more institutional memory than all the othersportswriters at all the other papers combined.Both papers have their weaknesses. The Trentonian, which never shiesaway from controversy, nonetheless fills its editorial page withunsigned,phoned-in comments from readers — the comments often seem, well,phone-y. And the Trenton Times now charges by the word for obituaries.My guess is that some good stories are missed because the survivorsdo not want to be bothered by another bill.The Princeton Packet, also known as the Princeton Package,produces a dozen different community newspapers through central NewJersey. Its flagship paper in Princeton has an awkward frequency:It’s semi-weekly, published Tuesdays and Fridays. It also has anawkwardcoverage area: Princeton Borough and Township, Montgomery, and WestWindsor (and a little of Plainsboro). Nonetheless it delivers asubstantialamount of municipal and sports news.The Package includes an arts and entertainment section called TimeOff, which many readers consider the most valuable part of the paperand which is rivaled only by U.S. 1’s own Preview section. It alsohas a biweekly (that’s every other week) business tabloid called thePrinceton Business Journal that seems to drain business coverage fromthe regular publication. So why do they publish it? As a stalkinghorse ready to move in when and if U.S. 1 falters — that’s myguess.The Town Topics, aka the Town Frolics. Despite thePacket’shigh visibility and expensive look, the free circulation Town Topicsis the paper that has dominated Princeton Borough and Township formany years. Two years ago the founding family sold the half-centuryold weekly to an ad sales representative and her husband, backed bya few other investors and architect Robert Hillier.To the credit of the new owners, they have resisted the obvioustemptationto redesign the entire publication. On the other hand they recentlywrote a long piece about Bob Hillier without even acknowledging hisinvolvement with the paper — not a sign of journalistic savvy.And after the President’s Day blizzard Town Topics failed to get itsissue out until Thursday.The West Windsor-Plainsboro News. Truth in reading: Istarted this free biweekly publication (“a driveway paper,”as some derisively call it) in 2000, after two prior incarnationsof a community paper there went out of business. Despite the obviousbusiness challenge to this endeavor, I give the new paper high marksfor coverage of school sports and people and for previewing worthwhileevents.Its municipal coverage would be more consistent if the paper cameout once a week. In the meantime the paper deserves credit forrefrainingfrom taking sides in the vociferous battles that have been waged inthis outwardly placid suburban environment. In the beginning someof us at U.S. 1 worried that our little sister would be nothing morethan a collection of bake sale stories. We even gave it a nickname:The WW-P Snooze. But in fact the paper has not yet covered a singlebake sale. My prediction: The Snooze is a sleeper, and when it fullyawakens it may surprise some people.Previous StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
