The Vanishing Newspaper, Academic Libraries, and Our Withering Democracy

Abstract

During the winter of 2024, the Star-Ledger, one of the preeminent newspapers in the state of New Jersey, announced that it would cease production of its print edition by February 2025 and henceforth publish online only. According to a news source, the Newark Morning Ledger Co. (owner of the Star Ledger) decided to close its print facility and stop production because of “rising costs, decreasing circulation, and reduced demand for print.”1 Around the same time, the Times of Trenton and the South Jersey Times also decided to transition to online only.2 Now that New Jersey no longer requires public legal notices to be posted in newspapers, there will probably be further erosion in the number of print news publications statewide as sources of income continue to dry up.3 Inevitably, more newspapers will either dispense with their print publication and focus solely on their online edition or disappear altogether as circulation and revenue steadily decline.