Trenton Times Owner NJ Advance Media Consolidates Newspaper Management, Will Lay Off More Employees

The vacant former home of the Times of Trenton on Perry Street in downtown Trenton.
The vacant former home of the Times of Trenton on Perry Street in downtown Trenton.

The Times of Trenton will be hit with additional layoffs as the company integrates its staff with NJ Advance Media.

Beginning on May 1, NJ Advance Media will provide all the content, advertising and marketing services for The Times of Trenton, The South Jersey Times, The Express-Times, the Hunterdon County Democrat, and other affiliated weekly newspapers, the company announced today.

Employees at the papers will have to reapply for jobs at the parent company. The company did not say how many people will be laid off.

“Many employees of The Times of Trenton, The South Jersey Times, NJN Publishing and The Express-Times will be offered jobs with NJ Advance Media, although officials of the newspapers say there will be some job losses,” reads the story on NJ.com, the digital hub for all of the publications, including the Star Ledger.

Employees began meeting individually with managers today to learn whether they are being offered a position with NJ Advance Media.

The Times of Trenton began laying off employees in 2006, shrinking from a newsroom of more than 100 people to under 40 staffers and shutting down the printing plant on site. Another round of layoffs began in 2008. Several employees were laid off last year.

Matt Dowling, currently editor in chief of The Times of Trenton, will become the senior managing producer for NJ Advance Media, working with all of the news operations.

Craig Turpin, the executive editor of the Hunterdon Democrat, will become community editor in Trenton and Hunterdon for NJ Advance Media.

Joseph P. Owens will continue to serve as publisher and executive editor at The South Jersey Times and Jim Deegan, the editor of the Express-Times, will continue to lead the news organization in Easton, for NJ Advance Media. The changes do not affect The Jersey Journal.

In the report about the changes, the move was spun as an expansion. NJ Advance Media officials said the move “builds on the success of NJ Advance Media, a digitally focused media company that was launched in June 2014 to provide content, advertising and marketing services” for The Star-Ledger and NJ.com.

“Four newspapers whose reporting appears on NJ.com and its sister site LehighValleyLive.com will expand and improve their news and information products by retaining digitally focused NJ Advance Media,” the report reads.

“Turning to NJ Advance Media for all content will better position the newspapers to focus on a real-time approach to distributing news, sports and entertainment content that’s most relevant to local readers in a digital age, while continuing to publish quality local newspapers,” reads the report.

NJ Advance Media was launched last year and Star Ledger employees had to reapply for their jobs with the new company. NJ Advance Media President Matt Kraner said the company was proud of its progress adapting to the digital landscape.

“This represents another logical step toward serving the local communities of New Jersey with top-quality journalism, whether in print or online, and developing solutions to help our advertisers grow their business,” Kraner said in the report.

All of the daily publications will maintain their current days of publication and will continue to be available through home delivery and on newsstands.