The New Jersey Star-Ledger will end its print edition in 2025

New Jersey’s largest newspaper, the Star-Ledger, said Wednesday it will stop publishing its print edition in February amid rising costs and declining print demand.

The owner of the 85-year-old Advance Local publication said it is also closing its Montville, N.J., production facility and ending print editions of The Times of Trenton and South Jersey Times newspapers, as well as the weekly Hunterdon County Democrat.

“Today’s announcement represents the next step toward the digital future of journalism in New Jersey,” said Steve Alessi, president of NJ Advance Media. “It’s important to note that this is a forward-looking decision that allows us to invest more deeply than ever in our journalism and in serving our communities.”

The paper has a history story in the Garden State. In 1939, SI Newhouse purchased Newark’s first daily newspaper, the Star-Eagle, and merged it with the Newark Ledger to become the Newark Star-Ledger.

Newark was stripped of the title in the seventies.

Alessi said there will be layoffs as a result.

The company did not respond to requests for information on how many employees will be let go.

The final print editions of the Star-Ledger, Times of Trenton and South Jersey Times will be published on February 2, 2025.

The final weekly print edition of the Hunterdon County Democrat will be published on January 30, 2025, and its subscribers will have access to the Star-Ledger online newspaper.

Online newspapers for The Star-Ledger, The Times of Trenton and South Jersey Times will continue to be produced seven days a week for subscribers.

According to Alessi, the discontinuation of the print publication will allow NJ Advance Media to reallocate resources to strengthen its core newsroom and that it has plans to grow the newsroom in 2025 in order to strengthen its reporting in new areas.

The executive applauded strong journalism this year that helped the paper win awards, including the Punch Sulzberger Innovator of the Year Award for reporter Adam Clark from the Poynter Journalism Awards and two Sigma Delta Chi Awards for Spencer Kent’s feature story “The Stranger in the Mirror.” ” and a portfolio of sports columns by Steve Politi.

Alessi also highlighted the newspaper’s investigative reporting on the financial mismanagement of New Jersey charter schools, as well as a series of true crime podcasts and newspapers.

Despite the powerful work, readers have steadily shifted their reading habits from print to digital over the years.

In 2024, the Star-Ledger’s print circulation is down 21% in the past year, the company said.

In recent years, newspaper production and distribution costs have risen as print readership has shrunk and migrated to digital platforms, the paper said.

Despite winning a string of Pulitzer Prizes in the early-mid 2000s, the paper’s parent company Advance Media began a broader consolidation of its New Jersey-based properties.

Under her NJ Advance Media group, an umbrella organization that included the Times of Trenton, the South Jersey Times and other properties, she consolidated the Ledger and NJ.com into one operation.

As a result, the Ledger closed its Newark newsroom, where it had operated for decades, and sold it to a New York developer.

Over the years, the paper has seen more consolidation and changes, including ending publication of its Saturday edition in 2023.

Wes Turner, an executive who works with The Star-Ledger, said the decision to stop printing the paper was a difficult one.

“This decision was not taken lightly, but the reality is that the print news model cannot be sustained,” he said.

Turner added that the company will provide affected employees with layoff and transition assistance packages prior to the closing.

Despite the grim reality of print publishing, Alessi emphasized that the future of journalism is still bright.

“Our journalists are on the ground, in our communities, turning over stones and shining a light on essential topics,” he said. “We consider the future of journalism in New Jersey and our newsroom to be very healthy.”