Star-Ledger ending print edition and closing production facility in 2025

The Star-Ledger will cease publishing a print newspaper and will close its Montville production facility in February 2025. The decision was made by the Star-Ledger’s owner, Newark Morning Ledger Co., due to rising costs, decreasing circulation and reduced demand for print.
In addition, Advance Local, which owns NJ Advance Media and NJ.com, announced that it is ending print publication of dailies The Times of Trenton and the South Jersey Times, as well as the weekly Hunterdon County Democrat. 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. The online newspaper provides subscribers with 10+ exclusive daily pages of additional local and national content not found in the current printed newspaper.
The final print editions of the Star-Ledger, Times of Trenton and South Jersey Times will be published on Feb. 2, 2025. The final weekly print edition of the Hunterdon County Democrat will be published on Jan. 30, 2025, and its subscribers will have access to the Star-Ledger online newspaper.
“Today’s announcement represents the next step into the digital future of journalism in New Jersey,” said Steve Alessi, President of NJ Advance Media. “It’s important to emphasize that this is a forward-looking decision that allows us to invest more deeply than ever in our journalism and in serving our communities.”
Alessi said that that ceasing print publication will allow NJ Advance Media to reallocate resources to strengthen its core newsroom. He said that the newsroom has more reporters than it did a year ago and has plans to continue to grow in 2025 as the organization looks to bolster reporting in previously under-covered areas of the state.
NJ Advance Media’s journalists will continue to produce content that appears on NJ.com, as well as in the online newspapers of the The Star-Ledger, The Times of Trenton and South Jersey Times.
In assessing the health of the company’s newsroom, Alessi pointed to an extraordinary run of journalism in the past year and recognition by prestigious national organizations, including the Punch Sulzberger Innovator of Year prize for journalist 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.
He also noted investigative and watchdog journalism efforts, such as Matthew Stanmyre’s ongoing reporting on financial mismanagement of New Jersey charter schools, which has resulted in multiple school leaders being removed from their positions, others having their salaries slashed, and a pledge from state legislators to launch hearings on the topic.
In addition, Alessi cited numerous innovation efforts, including the company’s true crime podcasts “In the Shadow of Princeton” and “Father Wants Us Dead” by Webby Award-winning podcaster Rebecca Everett; a suite of recently launched newsletters focused on politics, food and culture; and the Mosaic website devoted to diverse communities of New Jersey, as examples of the newsroom’s efforts to reach beyond its traditional audience and invite new users into the fold.
Alessi said, “As an organization, we have vigorously embraced the digital world and all of its potential to reach new audiences and provide value, reaching audiences on podcasts, via TikTok and Instagram, even on WhatsApp message groups. We will continue to invest in the digital future and cutting-edge technologies that can enrich the quality of our journalism and deliver more timely news with even greater frequency to our users.”
In August, the most recent month for which data is available, NJ.com ranked as the #1 local news site in the country, according to Comscore, a media measurement and analytics company. That month, the site had 15.2 million unique visitors, placing it even ahead of such national news brands as Wired, The Atlantic and Slate on Comscore’s rankings.
“This is a healthy, robust, dedicated newsroom that is perfectly positioned to sustain itself and grow in a notoriously challenging industry,” Alessi said.
In light of the closing of the Montville plant, with which it contracts to print its newspaper, and because it is facing its own financial challenges, the Hudson County-based Jersey Journal also announced that it will be ceasing publication. Its final print edition will be published on Feb. 1, 2025. The Jersey Journal is owned by the Evening Journal Association.
Star-Ledger leaders acknowledged that the changes will have a significant impact on existing employees of the company, as well as devoted readers of the company’s print products.
But, they said, the shift in readership habits from print to digital is in keeping with national trends in consumer and behavior. Thus far in 2024, Star-Ledger print circulation is down 21% in the last year.
In recent years, the production and distribution costs of newspapers have skyrocketed. At the same time, record numbers of users are now accessing news and information digitally from myriad platforms, including websites, online newspapers and newsletters.
“This decision was not made lightly, but the reality is that the print news model cannot be sustained,” said Wes Turner, an executive who works with The Star-Ledger.
Turner said that the company would be providing impacted employees with generous severance and transition assistance packages.
Alessi stressed that the end of NJ Advance Media’s print newspapers, and The Star-Ledger and Jersey Journal decisions to also cease publishing in print, do not mean that readers and subscribers in New Jersey will be abandoned— quite the opposite, he said.
“On any given day, you can visit NJ.com or access our online newspaper and discover dynamic, eye-opening work,” Alessi said. “Whether it’s ‘Project Extreme,’ a series exposing pockets of disturbing political extremism bubbling up throughout the state, or our award-winning examination of the 2023 deadly Newark Port fire and how it might have been avoided, or our bounty of delightful, deeply informed service journalism celebrating New Jersey’s best pizza or bagels.
“Our journalists are out in the field, in our communities, turning over stones, and shining light on essential subjects,” he said. “We consider the future of journalism in New Jersey and our newsroom to be very healthy.”