Changes at Gannett a sea-change for Central Jersey news

Logo of the Courier's website presence.

The reality of the sea-change in Plainfield and Central Jersey news coverage flowing from Gannett's move to regionalize its reporting is beginning to sink in -- at least among the bloggers (see Olddoc's Wednesday take here, and Bernice's assessment of the Plainfield blogosphere here).
After the Star-Ledger abandoned its county bureaus and then the benefits-less contract journalists that followed, the Courier News was the last outlet to give this city of 50,000 decent news coverage.

I took up the question a week ago (see here), hazarding that Plainfield coverage will change sharply with Mark Spivey's time being spread farther afield, and also sharing a concern about Gannett's Plainfield microsite --

One hopes the Plainfield mini-site, which has been an online goldmine for the Courier from the day Spivey first took it on, continues -- Gannett would be crazy to kill it. On the other hand, editing it takes time, and if they have Mark chasing over half the state to cover stories, something may have to give.

Well, that question is now answered, with Mark's farewell post to the microsite yesterday (see here), revealing that Gannett has officially pulled the plug on all its New Jersey microsites (of which the Plainfield one drew the most traffic, I have been told).

Mark, an award-winning journalist of the highest standards, will weather these changes and my wish is that he continue to be successful and prosper as the news industry reinvents itself.

As for Plainfield and the rest of Central Jersey, the thirst for timely, insightful local news is hardly likely to be slaked by Gannett's latest rearrangement of the deck chairs.

It is a time of challenge, danger and opportunity.

For Plainfielders, those are our regular conditions of life.

---

• Doc's Potpourri:  "Obituary for a paper"
• Plaintalker II: "A look at the Plainfield blogosphere"
• Plainfield Today:  "How will Courier changes affect Plainfield?"
• In The Field:  "A parting note" -- Spivey breaks the news the plug has been pulled.

-- Dan Damon

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