Star-Ledger

The Star-Ledger

The May 24, 2012 front page of The Star-Ledger
Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Broadsheet
Owner(s)	Advance Publications
Publisher	Richard Vezza
Editor	Kevin Whitmer
Founded	1832
Headquarters	1 Gateway Center Suite 1100 Newark, New Jersey 07102  United States
Circulation	114,000 Daily(Sept 2015) 359,820 Sunday(Sept 2014)
Website	nj.com

The Star-Ledger is the largest circulated newspaper in the U.S. state of New Jersey and is based in Newark. It is a sister paper to The Jersey Journal of Jersey City, The Times of Trenton and the Staten Island Advance, all of which are owned by Advance Publications.

In 2007, The Star-Ledger's daily circulation was reportedly more than the next two largest New Jersey newspapers combined and its Sunday circulation larger than the next three papers combined. It has suffered great declines in print circulation in recent years, to 180,000 daily in 2013 and 114,000 "individually paid print circulation," that is the number of copies being bought by subscription or at newsstands, in 2015.

In July 2013, The Ledger announced that it would sell its headquarters building in Newark. In 2013, Advance Publications announced it was exploring cost-saving changes among its New Jersey properties, but was not considering mergers or changes in publication frequency at any of the newspapers, nor the elimination of home delivery.

The Newark Daily Advertiser, founded in 1832, was Newark's first daily newspaper. It subsequently evolved into the Newark Star-Eagle, owned by what eventually became Block Communications. S. I. Newhouse bought the Star-Eagle from Block in 1939 and merged it with the Newark Ledger to become the Newark Star-Ledger. The paper dropped Newark from its masthead sometime in the 1970s, but is still popularly called the Newark Star-Ledger by many New Jersey residents.

During the 1960s The Star-Ledger's chief competitor was the Newark Evening News, once the most popular newspaper in New Jersey. In March 1971, the Star-Ledger surpassed the Evening News in daily circulation, because the Newark News was on strike. The Evening News shut down in 1972.

After the Newark Evening News moved to a high-traffic area (with the potential of trapping its delivery trucks in inner-city traffic) the Star-Ledger opened a satellite plant in Piscataway. The Piscataway location offered quick access to Union, Monmouth, Somerset, and Middlesex counties.