Hunterdon County Democrat, Times Of Trenton & Star-Ledger Will Stop Printing

A July edition on the Hunterdon County Democrat. File photo.

The Hunterdon County Democrat newspaper will stop printing in the new year.

The weekly newspaper with a history dating back to 1838 will cease its print edition in January 30, 2025, as part of a broader shift by NJ Advance Media towards a digital-only approach, the company announced.

The transition will also affect the daily publications The Star-Ledger, The Times of Trenton, and the South Jersey Times, with their final print issues in early February. The Easton Express-Times, which is in Pennsylvania, but operated by the New Jersey news organization, will also end print and continue online.

The daily newspapers will continue to provide digital content to their subscribers and maintain NJ.com, which will keep covering stories across New Jersey, the company announced in the statement posted Wednesday morning.

Steve Alessi, president of NJ Advance Media, stated that the decision marks a significant move towards enhancing digital journalism in the state.

“Today’s announcement represents the next step into the digital future of journalism in New Jersey,” he said. “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.”

According to Alessi, the statewide news organization currently boasts more reporters than the previous year and plans to expand further in 2025.

The shift comes as NJ.com was ranked as the most read local news website in the country in August, per Comscore, a media measurement and analytics firm.

NJ Advance Media will shutter its Morris County printing plant and that will result in job losses, the news organization said.

“This decision was not made lightly, but the reality is that the print news model cannot be sustained,” said Wes Turner, an executive for The Star-Ledger.

The Hunterdon County Democrat, which was acquired by the parent company of NJ Advance Media in 2001, has seen diminishing local coverage over the years. It follows a similar fate to the Lambertville Beacon, another local paper that ceased publication in 2015.

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