'The Record' to Vacate New Jersey Building in 2010

By: Joe Strupp The Record of Hackensack, N.J., which has been slowly relocating staff to its sister paper, the Herald News of Woodland Park, plans to completely vacate its main building at the end of 2010, according to an internal memo obtained by E&P.

The Dec. 3 memo, from North Jersey Media Group President Stephen Borg, stated that the paper intends to use another Hackensack location for some editorial and sales staff, but much of the operation would be moved to Woodland Park.

"They have been moving gradually for the past 18 months," company spokeswoman Linda Iceland said about the Hackensack staff when asked about the memo. But she said the memo finalized the date for when the relocation would be completed.

North Jersey Media Group, which owns both newspapers and numerous community weeklies, has about 1,200 total staffers, Iceland said.

The Herald News, formerly located in Passaic, moved to the Woodland Park location in 1999. In 2008, as the two papers began to share more coverage, staff from the Hackensack office began moving to the Woodland Park site, which also houses other North Jersey Media Group operations such as some community newspapers and some classified staff.

In February 2009, all of the top Record editors relocated to the Woodland Park site and news staffers began to work more and more out of 14 other company offices that house weekly newspapers or distribution centers. "Many were used by MoJos [mobile journalists]," Iceland said, referring to the growing practice of having reporters work primarily in the field with laptops, cell phones and other devices.

Iceland said no decisions had been made about the future of the main Hackensack office after it is vacated.


Borg's entire memo is below:

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Sent: Thursday, December 03, 2009 12:18 PM
To: NJMG All Employees
Subject: Hackensack Update

A message from President Stephen Borg:

We plan to vacate the main Hackensack building by December, 2010. In the month prior, we will occupy new space within the city primarily for sales and editorial personnel.

The timeframe is based on our estimate to move all the computers/servers to Rockaway and other locations.

Previously, I had communicated that, once we fully vacate 150 River Street, we would open a new location in Hackensack or Paramus. We considered Paramus because it is the retail hub of the county. Our research of the real estate market, though, shows we have more options in Hackensack.

The distribution warehouse on the property will stay in use after December, 2010. Its move date is still to be determined. Most likely, we will move to an industrial/warehouse area closer to Route 80 to save time for our trucks and the carriers.