Atlantic City, NJ Newspaper Will Soon Print Only 3 Times Per Week

HARRY HURLEY OPINION EDITORIAL

We have maintained for the past 31 years that newspapers as we know them will cease to exist in the future.

The local daily newspaper, The Press of Atlantic City has been forced to do many things over the years in order to stay in operation.

The latest move is to only print the physical newspaper three days per week. It has always been printed seven days per week.

David Wildstein of the New Jersey Globe was the first to report (that I saw) regarding this dramatic reduction … that he reported will take effect in April, 2023.

Under different ownership and management, The Press of Atlantic City had to sell their own real estate properties. The New York Times also did this years ago.

The local daily newspaper next farmed out the printing of the physical newspaper and along with it, the size of the newspaper also shrank and the total number of pages were also greatly reduced.

It’s gotten so bad that The Press of Atlantic City cannot even print the score of the Philadelphia Phillies game, or, Philadelphia 76ers game, because their print deadline is too early to accommodate … making it’s print editions even more of a lagging indicator.

The Press of Atlantic City has been forced to discontinue most of their weekly newspapers as well.

My colleague Joe Kelly reported earlier this week that The Press of Atlantic City will discontinue home delivery service in the near future.

If you missed Joe’s coverage … here is a direct link to catch-up. It’s a good and informative article.

Read More: Atlantic City's Only Newspaper Throwing in the Towel On Delivery

Being a paperboy had been a staple for generations with children (myself included) having the opportunity to have a great job at a young age.

I did it for two years and actually loved it. You had the opportunity to run your own business. You delivered the newspaper, 7 days a week and collected payment every week … with some subscribers paying monthly.

Then, early every Saturday morning, you would reconcile your business with your district manager … somehow, more than 50 years later, I still remember that mine was Ralph Benskin.

The paperboy paid The Atlantic City Press (the name in those days) and whatever was left, was your payment.

I am convinced that having this level of responsibility at such an early age prepared you to be able to tackle the business world later in life.

As American societal evolution would have it, it became impossible for 12 and 13 year olds to do this job safely any longer … so adults took over the responsibility.

This is a big miss for children, today. It was a real proving ground at a very young age .

This is my actual Atlantic City Press paperboy one year of service award, dated August 13, 1973.

It’s such a shame that children will never have the opportunity to do this job. It was a real proving ground, enabling a child to successfully interact with adults in a business setting at such a young age.

Over the past 30 years, The Press of Atlantic City has become very petty regarding our radio program. This, despite the fact, that I wrote for them as a staff writer for two years, just prior to the advent of the Atlantic City Casino industry, when I left them.

Later, I also wrote for their weekly newspaper for more than a decade.

It’s hilarious that after we won the Best Columnist for two years in-a-row in their “Best of The Press” awards program, The Press of Atlantic City eliminated the category.

Imagine, this so-called newspaper actually resorted to eliminating the category of best columnist, because they didn’t like who was winning it each year. That’s just plain parochial and stupid.

Yes, a newspaper that holds an annual competition, took this opportunity away from their own staff writers.

This is what you get, when a radio guy beats all of their full-time staff writers. They simply didn’t want to compete any longer. They simply moved to eliminate the category to avoid further public embarrassment.

My prediction of more than 30 years ago is now closer than ever before to becoming true.

There are now at least two generations of Americans who have never touched a physical newspaper.

They instead prefer to get their news digitally and electronically through radio stations and television stations, that can provide instant news, as opposed to something that lags hours and many times days behind digital, radio and television.