By: Joe Strupp So what do you do when you have lots of newspaper experience and a year's salary from a recent buyout at The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J.?
You start a Website.
That seems to be the view of some 40 former Star-Ledger staffers who took the lucrative early retirement last fall and have since banded together to form newjerseynewsroom.com.
"We had started talking about doing this even before the buyouts were made," said Matt Romanoski, who spent five years at the paper, leaving as deputy sports editor. "There were several people involved early on."
The buyouts were among 151 in the Star-Ledger's 330-person newsroom last fall. They occurred after the paper threatened to close or sell if cost-cutting was not achieved.
The Web site launched two weeks ago and is headed by three former veterans of the Advance Publications daily - Romanoski, Garrett Morrison, and Andrew Lagomarsino.
The site, which so far has only Google ads but virtually no overhead, claims about 10,000 page views per week. It is mixing original reporting about the Garden State -- ranging form statehouse issues to sports -- along with links to other sites, including the Star-Ledger. An arrangement with Voice of America also allows the site to use that outlet's content.
"Once everyone took the buyout, each of us went a different direction to recruit hires, find funding and look for online connections," Romanoski said. But at this point, little money is coming in or going out.
Romanoski says the beauty of the start-up is that contributors can work without pay, to start, and rely on their buyout payments. Some have outside jobs and contribute one or two stories per week.
"No one is being paid as of now, we are giving equity and hoping to secure revenue," he said.
The site is currently posting about eight to 10 original items per day, along with other linked material. "We have some names who have been covering some beats for 20 or 25 years," he said. "The Star-Ledger is trying to replace them with interns and part-time people and less-experienced people."
Romanoski is referring to a new news service the Star-Ledger launched that uses newer hires and some interns to cover a handful of local communities.
He says the site is geared toward news of New Jersey, but also outside stories of interest to New Jerseyans. Some recent posts have included original stories such as beach tag fees going up, environmental concerns about a local waterway, and the recent swine flu outbreak and its effect on local residents.
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