Corrections or additions?
This article was prepared for the March 3, 2004
issue of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Between the Lines
You may have read the murder story on the cover of February 29’s New
Jersey section of the New York Times. That usually sanguine section
profiled Jonathan Nyce, the former biotech CEO who is accused of
murdering his wife, and included an anecdote printed in this newspaper
five years ago. Like the Trentonian reporter who used this same quote
plus other information from the U.S. 1 article, Times writer Jonathan
Miller attributed the quote appropriately to U.S. 1.
On March 17, 1999, when we did a cover story on as CEO and founder of
Epigenesis, we printed the advice that Nyce says his father gave.
Miller related U.S. 1’s anecdote about his father: "He worked around
the clock one night to design the machinery to knit the first pair of
pantyhose. But because he had a new family, he was unable to
capitalize on that discovery, whereas his partner was able to run with
it. He told me that if I were ever in a similar position, to be sure I
could capitalize on it."
At the time Nyce told that story, he had dreams of making his company
a big success. Last year, in difficult financial times, Nyce lost
control of his company. Instead of working on Nyce’s projects, new
investors licensed products that were more ready to enter the
marketplace, and Nyce found himself with no job. So of course the
story Nyce told seems ironic now.
Why, you may ask, isn’t U.S. 1 Newspaper doing a cover story on the
alleged murderer? Why aren’t we doing regular, breathless updates on
each and every development in a case that hasn’t even gone to the
grand jury yet?
Because we are a weekly paper. Michelle Nyce died Friday, January 16,
and the following Wednesday, January 21, we did the story. We recapped
what we knew about Nyce from before, what has happened to his company
since then, what the police were saying at the time, and we
reinterviewed our sources. Weekly newspaper deadlines don’t always
lend themselves to play-by-play stories.
That doesn’t mean we won’t ever write about the Nyce case again. When
we think we can add useful insights to a story, we will re-interview
our sources and dig into it. That happened in the Lyle and Erik
Menendez murder case, which attracted raging headlines in both the
tabloid and the mainstream press.
We gave it limited coverage until September 15, 1993, when we
published Larry Tabak’s 4,500 word cover story "When Winning Is
Everything." That issue has been one of the most requested "back
issues" in our nearly 20-year history.
The difference in the Menendez case – Tabak, who is not only an
accomplished writer but also an excellent tennis player who had been
hired by Jose Menendez to play in practice sessions with his sons.
Jonathan Nyce’s story of shattered dreams and allegedly violent crime
will continue to fascinate both the business and popular press. Down
the road, we may revisit the Nyce story. If you have information or an
opinion about it, let us know. In the meantime, read the dailies.
Corrections or additions?
This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com
— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
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