Online strength heralds future growth

North Jersey Media Group

At a time when newspapers are fighting to stay alive, North Jersey Media Group, the parent of award-winning dailies The Record and Herald News, has been holding steady.

The Hackensack-based company has adopted various strategies to stay on solid ground during tumultuous times, said President Stephen Borg. “NJMG has focused on reducing expenses, growing Internet revenue and developing new revenue streams, on top of maintaining the quality journalism we have been providing in all our publications,” including a monthly magazine and several community newspapers.

NJMG is rolling out a number of online initiatives to help increase Internet revenue and profit for the company: “we view ourselves as a media company, not a newspaper company,” Borg said. Last month, NJMG launched new town pages on its Web site, NorthJersey.com, with content on each town coming from The Record, the company’s community newspapers and magazines, and outside services, he said.

Around Labor Day, NJMG will debut two new Web sites, NorthJerseyMoms.com and 201homes.net, the latter of which will showcase luxury real estate for sale in Bergen County. The company also has joined the Yahoo Newspaper Consortium — a partnership between the online giant and more than 800 newspapers — and is upgrading its partnership with Monster.com in October.

Despite challenges facing newspapers, “I think the newspaper industry will do well in print and online if we maintain our editorial quality,” he said. “That’s paramount.”

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