After 40 years, somehow, I’m still doing this

By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times @mikemcgannpa On Sept. 13, 1983, I walked into the newsroom of Suburban Trends in Butler, N.J.  — a twice-weekly newspaper — for my first shift as a sports assistant. Forty years later, how different things are now seems difficult to absorb. I was a college sophomore at William Paterson College and had been pestering the editors of The Trends for work since...

The loss of journalism hurts us all, but this one was personal

By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times @mikemcgannpa I was going to write a column for this week about how bad the state legislature is and how lousy the May referendum question is on the governor’s emergency powers, but to be honest, those are topics I could write about any time. I’m a bit in a rush to get this done this week because I have to be out of town this weekend: a college friend and fellow...

Without an engaged media, no one is watching out for you

Lies, ‘Fake news’ can’t become the new normal By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times Friday night, I had honor of gathering to mourn the virtual death of a small town newspaper — The Suburban Trends — after its purchase by Gannett and subsequent layoff of the vast majority of its staff. We met in a small place in Bloomingdale, N.J., hometown to current GOP power player Mike DuHaime...