Week #9 Assignment

The independent news source I have found and will continue to use for this semester is the Star Ledger Newspaper, which is the largest newspaper in the state of New Jersey. It is based in Newark, New Jersey. I have always enjoyed reading this newspaper because it gives a good amount of information on what is happening all over New Jersey, while sometimes having different perspectives than the large ownership companies that seem to be everywhere today.

OWNERSHIP

The Star Ledger is owned by Advance Publications, an American media company owned by the Newhouse Family. They own over 30 different newspapers, different business journals, periodicals and magazines,some internet websites and even a few Cable television news channels. Advance Publications owns Condé Nast Publications, Parade Publications, Fairchild Publications, American City Business Journals and the Golf Digest Companies.

CREDIBILITY

The Newark Star-Ledger's daily circulation is larger than the next two largest New Jersey newspapers combined and its Sunday circulation is larger than the next THREE papers combined. It was founded in 1832 and has won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting in 2005 for its coverage of the resignation of the Governor of New Jersey Jim McGreevey, after he confessed to adultery with a male lover. The paper awards the Star-Ledger Trophy each year to high school teams that end up as the number one team in their respective sport in the state of New Jersey. Overall, the newspaper has been around for a while and has always been ranked as one if not the best newspapers in New Jersey. It is also very credible for its large and well-known ownership.

CONTENT

The Star-Ledger is a daily newspaper reporting on news of all 21 counties in New Jersey. It contains the sections of: opinion, sports, business, high-school sports, obituaries, entertainment, and home and garden with columnists and staff blogs. There are also news sections by towns and by county. The Star-Ledger also has a website, where news can be found everyday, 24 hours a day. There are videos, blogs, photos and local updates.

MY COMPARISON

The Star-Ledger newspaper can be compared to The New York Post, owned by News Corporation. It is a newspaper that reports on the news for certain sections of New York and has the same type of sections and areas of news.