Record and Ledger combine State House bureau

by: Jason Springer

Sat Feb 21, 2009 at 02:24:26 PM EST

The editors said the new arrangement made sense in an age when budget cuts, even before the current recession, have forced newspapers around the country to dramatically reduce reporting staffs. In December, several Star-Ledger reporters left the Trenton bureau as part of a sweeping buyout program.

"At a time when newspapers have had to cut back news staffs, this cooperation allows us to pool resources and better serve all our readers," said Jim Willse, the editor of The Star-Ledger, in a prepared statement.

Frank Scandale, editor of The Record, said, "Sharing coverage while maintaining two distinct news operations is a common-sense response to the changing media landscape."

While the move creates the largest Statehouse bureau in the nation, it further reduces the competition on Press Row that once drove coverage of state government news.

The Ledger and The Trenton Times, both owned by the Newhouse family, had previously combined their Statehouse bureaus. The New York Times recently shut its three-person bureau. Gannett, which owns the Asbury Park Press, The Courier Post, The Home News Tribune and The Courier News, reduced its Statehouse bureau to two from six.