SPC Student Center Groundbreaking: Officials at Saint Peter’s College in Jersey City broke ground yesterday on a six-story, 90,000-square-foot student center near McGinley Square.

Fulop Fundraiser: Ward E councilman and 2013 mayoral hopeful Steven Fulop added to his campaign war chest Tuesday night thanks to a standing-room only fundraiser at Zeppelin Hall in Jersey City.

Pipeline Opposition Heating Up Across the Hudson: The New York Times takes a look at the debate over the proposed Spectra natural gas pipeline that is currently seeking approval from federal regulators.

Bloomberg Supports MTA Extension to N.J.: New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg is pushing forward with a proposal to extend the MTA’s No. 7 train to New Jersey and get the project locked in before he leaves City Hall in two years. And Gov. Christie stated in a WCBS radio interview yesterday that he would support the project if New York state and the city contribute to the financing.

New Supermarket in McGinley Square: Hoping to increase the availability of fresh food, gourmet meals, and organic ingredients in household kitchens in Jersey City’s McGinley Square neighborhood, 64-year-old Mike Aziz and his son, Mike Jr., 36, have opened a new Key Food Supermarket at 113-115 Monticello Ave.

WomenRising Gets Verizon Cash: WomenRising, Inc., a Jersey City-based nonprofit has received a $10,000 grant from Verizon as part of the company’s Verizon for Domestic Violence Prevention and Education Program.

Crime Blotter: Three men were victims of a gunpoint carjacking at 3rd and Brunswick Streets Tuesday and police later located the 2007 Dodge Charger a short distance away; a high-speed chase yesterday ended when a fleeing SUV scraped across a building and hit three police cars that had boxed it in at Kennedy Boulevard and Communipaw Avenue; six boys were arrested in three fights yesterday at Dickinson High School.

Today’s Best Bets:

Drop by the Iron Monkey this evening for some great prices on seasonal brews as the bar makes way for their winter draft offerings (starts at 6 pm).

In Statewide News:

New State Education Offices: The Christie administration’s reorganization of the state education department is moving out into the field, with plans to create seven “regional achievement centers” that will serve as satellite bureaus that will focus on the bottom five percent of public schools.

Christie Rebuked by Judge Again: A state court judge has ruled against Gov. Christie’s administration for a second time in a lawsuit over whether the state can increase judges’ health insurance and pension contributions.

New Jerseyans Support Occupy Wall Street: New Jerseyans taking part in the Occupy Wall Street protest in New York City or a related demonstration in Philadelphia have the support of the state’s voters by a margin of 46 to 29 percent, according to a Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll published Thursday.

Lonegan Attacks Dems in Key Districts: Steve Lonegan and Americans for Prosperity today unleashed a six-figure cable TV and raido ad campaign against five targeted Democrats, three of whom occupy the cycle’s three battleground districts.

Disability-Insurance Brokers Criticize Tax Break Plan: An effort by Gov. Chris Christie and the state Legislature to reduce workers’ payroll taxes will backfire and force businesses to pay exorbitant disability insurance rate increases, two insurance brokers said Wednesday.

Missed Opportunities for Energy Cost Reductions: The state is failing to take advantage of a two-year-old program that offers huge opportunities to significantly reduce energy costs without laying out any capital, according to an advisory group.

Questions About Facebook Grant to Newark Schools: One of every three dollars of private money spent so far in Newark’s bid to reform its schools has gone to consultants and contractors, many with ties to Mayor Cory Booker and acting state Education Commissioner Chris Cerf, records show.

Medical School Report: Rutgers is getting the medical school it needs to compete for major grants, but questions remain about the future of UMDNJ and University Hospital in Newark, and the medical schools in South Jersey.

First up is next Thursday’s candidate forum in the Heights. The event — sponsored by JCI along with the Riverview Neighborhood Association, Washington Park Association, the Heights Community Coalition, the Hudson County AARP and the Hope Center — is at PS 28/Christa McAuliffe School (167 Hancock Avenue) from 7 to 9 pm on Thursday, October 13.

The following week, the local chapter of the Women’s Political Caucus of New Jersey is hosting a forum Downtown at PS 16/Cornelia Bradford School (96 Sussex Street). That forum is slated for Wednesday, October 19 from 6 to 8:30 pm.

And last but not least, JCI has joined local resident Candice Osbourne in putting together a virtual candidates forum on Facebook. The page features candidate information, and many candidates are answering questions posed by voters. As the election draws nearer, the forum will also serve as a repository for all the latest news and updates. Check it out on Facebook here and be sure to “like” the page.

As we know from past experience, there’s nothing the folks over at Men’s Health love more than a good list. This month, the magazine has a new one out that measures the most socially networked cities in America, and Jersey City comes in at number 43 on the list, sandwiched between Des Moines and Indianapolis.

While there are likely a number of ways to measure social connectivity online, the Men’s Health methodology seems pretty legit. They explain it here:

We started by calculating the number of Facebook and LinkedIn users per capita, followed by overall Twitter usage (NetProspex). Then we looked at traffic generated by the major social networks, including Myspace, Friendster, Reddit, and Digg (analyzed by ad network Chitika). Finally, after factoring in the percentage of households that check out chat rooms and blogs (SimplyMap), we had the results.

Much like in this year’s Census count, Jersey City fell behind perennial rival Newark on this list (the Brick City came in at 35), but we did come in ten spots ahead of our big brother across the river, New York City.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the top five cities on list were, in order: D.C., Atlanta, Denver, Minneapolis and Seattle. For the rest of the results, you can check out the full list here.

My girlfriend and I have lived together for almost two years and I’m not thrilled with the fact that she’s friends with just about every one of her ex-boyfriends on Facebook. I don’t feel the need to befriend my exes — so how do I get her to stop going down memory lane?

Facebook brings out the worst and best in rekindling and rehashing. You could find your long lost childhood friend and realize you have little to say to one another after the initial gush of sentimentality. For some people, old flames fall in the same category; it’s nice to catch up and wish each other well. I think the issue is more that you might feel threatened by these online relationships. Is her goal to have an innocent refresher chat or do you believe she is inviting some flames to be rekindled? Ask her honestly, and say that you feel a little uncomfortable with these “friends” who are in her life again. But dictating that she cut off contact with her exes may be more extreme than is warranted.

My girlfriend and I have a great relationship — except that she’s super possessive. Every time we go out (which we love doing together) she is on me like white on rice. I can’t dance with or innocently chat with any other girl in the bar — and to me, that’s part of the fun of club life. How can I convince her that even though I’m really into her, I need a little breathing room? (By the way, we are in a same-sex relationship.)

I’m not sure the issue of same-sex makes a difference here. What you have is more a case of insecurity, regardless of gender. I’m assuming that you’re not pushing the boundaries of what’s appropriate socializing (for example, dancing that’s not too suggestive and touchy) and you’re respectful in not inviting behavior you can’t commit to. It’s worth having a talk about how her behavior can become counter-productive; turning the possessive screws too tightly often drives people apart rather than closer together. It might be better to have her focus on herself more (perhaps through therapy) and where her roots of insecurity stem from, rather than the burden being on you to alter your behavior. As long as she’s clear that your intentions are for fun only and that she’s your one and only — you have every right to feel squelched by her possessiveness.

Love & Loathing in JC is the Independent’s dating/sex/relationships advice column. Got questions? Email them to loveandloathingjc (at) gmail.com. Your questions will be answered in a future column; anonymity is guaranteed.

Two animal-welfare nonprofits and three individuals are asking a court to remove Liberty Humane Society’s (LHS) entire Board of Directors and appoint a receiver to look over the troubled shelter’s finances, according to a civil lawsuit filed this week in the Chancery Division of New Jersey Superior Court.

The lawsuit is just the latest development in the bitter fight over the shelter’s euthanasia policy and whether LHS should pursue a stringent no-kill policy, which has led to major board and leadership shakeups at the shelter over the past few months.

In a statement emailed to JCI, the LHS board contends that the suit is unfounded, and is just an “inexcusable attempt” by “animal extremists” to intimidate the board “into giving up and letting them take over the shelter.”

It contends that the groups are trying to wrestle LHS’s contract with Jersey City away; the shelter receives hundreds of thousands of dollars each year as the city’s designated partner in rescuing stray and runaway animals. (In addition, the city also outsources all Animal Control duties to the shelter on weekends, holidays and city furlough days.)

“They have made it clear through their lawyer that their objective is to get the city contract and they will do anything to achieve that objective,” the board says.

In the court filing, New Jersey Animal Advocates, New Jersey Animal Rescue and individuals Donna Lerner, Lisa Coons and Brad Levy allege that the current LHS board and several other individuals have undertaken an array of ethical, financial and managerial improprieties since taking control of the shelter this summer.

Specifically, the suit says the defendants have “misappropriated both public funds and privately donated funds” and have “sought to systematically silence and intimidate critics and potential witnesses.”

The lawsuit alleges the defendants have “intentionally and maliciously falsifi[ed] the numbers of animals killed” at the shelter in the past few months. It claims that “approximately 41 dogs” and an unknown number of cats have been “unnecessarily put to death” at LHS since late August, including by inhumane methods like “heart-sticking,” a quick-kill method in which a sedated animal’s heart is punctured with a needle containing the barbiturate sodium pentobarbital. 

The suit also says the defendants have undertaken “a series of actions intended to induce fear and intimidation aimed at former LHS employees, former LHS volunteers and critics of the current LHS board” through several means.

First off, the suit alleges that employees who have criticized the current board — including former shelter manager Jillian Walters and former kennel manager Jane Vega — have been fired and replaced with candidates “chosen solely on the basis of allegiance to the board.” It also says the shelter’s leadership has banned volunteers who disagree with the board, like well-known Jersey City animal advocate and former LHS board member Carol McNichol, who up until recently was doing pro-bono public relations work for the shelter.

But the board contends that employees were fired “for failing to follow new protocols” established since the summer.

“Staff firings were done in the best interests of the animals and to safeguard their wellbeing,” the board says. “LHS has not intimidated former volunteers.”

Specifically, the suit questions the recent firing of former LHS veterinarian Joseph Bloom, whose salary was pre-paid by the Neu Family Foundation, one of LHS’s major funders. But the board claims Bloom’s “substandard” performance forced their hand.

“LHS had to lay out thousands of dollars to cover costs incurred due to his botched surgeries and other medical procedures,” it says. “Keeping Dr. Bloom on staff posed a continuing risk to animals’ safety and wellbeing.”

But Bloom contests that claim, pointing out the LHS board president Alfred Martino told the press earlier this month that “budget reasons” were behind Bloom’s firing.

“While I was employed by the Liberty Humane Society no animal under my care was ever harmed or endangered,” Bloom says. “I wish the staff and the animals at the LHS all the best for the future. I have no further comment.”

The suit also claims that LHS, or someone acting on its behalf, “illegally communicated” with Facebook to have two pages created this summer that were critical of the shelter — Liberty Humane Society Uncensored and New Jersey Animal Advocates — removed.

Facebook’s press office did not immediately return a request for comment or confirmation, but the LHS board says the social media site “determined that the content and purpose of these pages violated its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities and took the pages down.”

The suit also says that LHS board member John Hanussak’s criminal complaint against Brad Levy for alleged threats made under an alias on the “Uncensored” Facebook page is “totally groundless” and just “an attempt to misuse the legal system for the improper use of stifling criticism, and intimidation and coercion.” Levy is due in court in connection to the complaint this coming Monday.

“[We] will take this fight to your home, your work, wherever you go we will find you!! You are the hunted now,” a poster identified as “John Wolf” wrote on the Facebook page on August 30. “We played nice and you wanted to play hard. Now We Will Hunt You! Some people like to kill animals. And others…”

This post was later removed (before the entire page was taken down), and the author wrote another post saying he did not condone violence against anyone affiliated with LHS.

“Death threats are not a form of criticism; they are crimes,” the board says. ”Mr. Levy will have his day in court and be judged accordingly.”

The suit aims to have the board “removed immediately” and “replaced with concerned and experienced individuals,” and asks that all of LHS’s bank accounts be frozen, except for necessary salary and operating expenses, until a receiver is appointed to oversee the shelter’s finances. It also asks that the court force LHS to immediately stop “the killing of animals for reasons other than due to untreatable or terminal illness or disease” and put in place “a humane euthanasia policy.” The plaintiffs are also seeking compensatory and punitive damages, attorney fees and costs related to this suit, a related lawsuit and criminal complaints the defendants have made against the plaintiffs.

For its part, the board believes it will win this legal battle.

“We have every confidence the court will see through this nonsense and soon it will be behind us,” it says. “In the meantime, we continue to focus on taking care of the animals and serving the community.”

From left to right: Mayor Healy, press secretary Jennifer Morrill and Rutgers University Center for Government Services director Alan Zalkind.

Jersey City has received the “Best Overall” award in this year’s Rutgers University Center for Government Services’ Municipal Public Information Contest.

The award, which was presented to Mayor Healy and press secretary Jennifer Morrill on Thursday at the League of Municipalities convention in Atlantic City, goes to local governments who provide information to the public with clarity, quality and completeness.

The city’s entry included its 2010 Census Public Service Announcement, its newsletter, its website and its recently launched Facebook page.

“Great pride is taken in the work that we do, and we are honored to receive this award,” Morrill says in a statement. “Day in and day out, our team works to produce high quality print, broadcast and online/social media content for the residents of Jersey City, and this award acknowledges that effort.”

But Jersey City is changing in many ways, as the Technological Society becomes more fully realized each and every day. So it’s only fitting that in this year’s campaign, we were treated to a high-tech version of the notorious sound truck: the truck for incumbent Mayor Jerramiah Healy blasting video advertisements (many featuring President Barack Obama). Yes, indeed, the nature of politicking in Chilltown is changing.

Meanwhile on the web, the past five years have birthed an interactive multiverse of social networking, content management, bleeding edge hardware, mobile web applications and the disappearing barriers between content creators, distributors and consumers. The difference is staggering. It has changed the face of everything it has touched, including politics, and those who ignore it face a major disadvantage when facing those who embrace it.

We saw just how far this new web can affect the outcome of an election during Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. The Obama campaign did what no one had done before: it embraced new technologies as a fundamental and integrated component of traditional campaign organizing and fundraising, rather than a sideshow. Technology was not just a tool in their toolbox, it was their drive train.

MyBarackObama.com allowed local organizers to plug in with the national campaign, taking the reigns on grassroots organizing while staying connected and relevant to the overall strategy. It also offered a suite of tools that allowed organizers to easily send out email blasts or coordinate with others. Twitter social messaging was used to get information out to people, but it was also used to focus organizers and engage supporters in an energizing and interactive way. Facebook groups were used to cement the youth vote in a way that had rarely been seen before. And now, this is the standard by which other campaigns are being judged.

Well, I might not go that far. The Obama campaign had one thing most campaigns only dream of having: Barack Obama. But lessons from the campaign could be learned by any candidate for any office.

So how did Jersey City’s mayoral and City Council candidates use these lessons and emerging web campaign technologies to bolster their bids for office this spring? With the hangover from the elections receding into the background and the runoff passed, we take a look at how well the campaigns integrated new technologies into their own strategies, and what impact that had on the outcome.

Team Healy

The website for incumbent Mayor Healy and his roster of City Council candidates was fairly simple and informative, with links to news, biographies, platforms and positions. The site’s page loading was slowed down by objects and images, but the content was easy to navigate.

The Team Healy site was also tied to the social web, with outgoing links to Facebook and YouTube pages.

The Healy campaign boasted two Facebook pages in addition to individual candidate’s pages. Healy For Mayor 2009 was the most active. A political organization page with 236 members, it dwarfed the nascent Young Professionals for Mayor Healy, another political organization page with only 27 members.

One Healy candidate, Ward C’s Nidia Rivera Lopez, had her Facebook page notably hacked in late April. Links to pornography were sent out to her 44 Facebook supporters. The fact that her account was compromised and porn sent out over it — during a campaign — is real slacking on her tech team’s part. What was the password on it, 1-2-3-4? (Remind me to change the password on my luggage.)

The Healy team had 13 videos on YouTube, including each campaign ad. They also put longer videos of high-profile Healy endorsements from Newark mayor Cory Booker and Sen. Bob Menendez on the page, as well as several clips used to bolster the messaging of Healy’s ties to Obama. The page is rounded out by clips from Healy’s most recent State of the City address and from the Sustainable Cities conference that took place at Liberty Science Center in March. Of course, the campaign was also shadowed on YouTube by the user “JerryHealy09” which posted a parody ad that apes a Hillary Clinton ad from the Democratic presidential primaries and plays on Healy’s reputation as one with a wee bit of a thirst.

The Healy campaign was one of only two that waded into the Twitter waters this election. Both Healy and Lopez had Twitter accounts, but judging from the number and dates of their updates, it was little more than a passing fad.

@MayorHealy, with only five updates over its apparent lifespan of ten days (May 6-16), still amassed 67 followers; while @NidiaRLopez sent out 13 updates (the last one on election night) and picked up 24 followers. Her use of Twitter seemed more organic than Healy’s, but only slightly (mainly because of this May 7 tweet: “Doing an oral hygiene presentation at the Grandview Senior Center.”). Overall, both accounts feel a bit cold and spammy.

Both Healy and Lopez seem not to have learned one of the basic tenets of Twitter marketing, whether political or not: If you follow people, they will be more likely to follow you back. Healy was only following eight other Twitter users, while Lopez was following six.

Manzo for Jersey City

The website for Lou Manzo and his team of council candidates had a solid amount of information, but it was hampered in load time by too many images and embedded videos all on the home page. It also featured a strange site architecture that tells us it most likely wasn’t set up by a web expert.

The Manzo campaign had videos, but used the relatively obscure service Blip.tv rather than YouTube or Vimeo. The campaign’s Blip page featured several Manzo ads and longer-form segments where he spoke about issues. Manzo’s campaign was largely absent from Facebook and Twitter, even though Manzo did maintain a personal Facebook page, which he used for campaign messaging on occasion.

Smith Team for Positive Change

In the beginning stages of the campaign, the slate headed by Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith had a remedial website that was tough to navigate and sported poorly cropped headshots of Smith’s council candidates.

Smith’s web strategy didn’t really get going until its relatively late-in-the-game hiring of longtime local journalist David Cruz as communications director. One of Cruz’s first tasks was to set up a new website.

The site Cruz went with — which unfortunately can no longer be retrieved online — felt more like a blog than a traditional campaign site, with each candidate “contributing” entries and first-person accounts of life on the trail. The site also included the relevant links to biographical, policy and background information. It also included a schedule of upcoming events, debates and campaign appearances.

One of the Smith team’s other web strengths was the use of YouTube video, both on the YouTube site and embedded in the Smith site. This is not surprising considering Cruz’s recent experience in radio. He took the skills honed at Newark’s WBGO and turned them into campaign videos that, while not slick by any means, were effective in other ways.

The two campaign ads were obvious candidates for the YouTube page. But the nine longer clips, of candidates out campaigning and sometimes talking off the cuff about various issues, were the real diamond in the rough here. They were entertaining (at least to a political wonk!), touched on policy (always a plus) and revealed more about the real person behind the candidate than any campaign ad did this season.

One Jersey City

For a campaign with very little money, the One Jersey City team, led by mayoral candidate Dan Levin, made good use of the web and social media.

The campaign’s main site featured a traditional layout, but at times was hard to navigate and was slow to load. The site also suffered from a few false starts.

In the nascent stages of the campaign, the One Jersey City team was using its site to illustrate one of its main campaign themes: using programs and policies that have worked in other places to help solve the problems facing Jersey City. To that end, the site briefly began uploading policy papers, research and related news articles about issues like community policing. It was a strategy that merged well with the web, with its endless interconnectivity and borderless geography. But unfortunately as the campaign heated up, the campaign (understandably) had little time to do such rudimentary blogging.

A similar phenomenon took place with the campaign’s use of short web videos designed to illustrate a problem in the city and the solution that the campaign was offering. Billed as a series, the last video was teased on the blog in February, and they ended up only touching on land use and zoning issues — important issues, no doubt, but not exactly the “hot” issues in the campaign.

On Facebook, One Jersey City was disproportionately well-represented, when compared to the overall vote total it received. Its One Jersey City common interest group sports 222 members, with a more active “Wall” than most of the other campaigns and a variety of on-the-scenes photos and messages from Levin. The group is still active as of this writing, which is fitting since Levin has said the campaign was only the beginning for One Jersey City.

For a low-budget grassroots campaign, One Jersey City was lookin’ good on video, thanks to help from Jersey City’s own Colin Comstock of Le Arsenal AV. The campaign was the only one to go with Vimeo in addition to YouTube, and they’ve got 15 videos on their Vimeo page, including the one campaign ad they produced, those short issues videos we mentioned above and solid footage from campaign events and from public hearings where Levin spoke.

Phil Webb

The website of mayoral candidate Phil Webb was by far the least technologically advanced, and also hardly included any relevant information about the candidate. Webb’s site was an out of the box solution from CompleteCampaigns.com, and while it is not a bad idea to go with such a product (especially if money is an issue, as it was for Webb), if you do, you should modify it to make sure — at the very least — that the majority of links aren’t empty pages.

Webb did do some ingenious advertising on Craigslist, as proven by the ad that read: “MAY 12, 2009 IS THE ELECTION. PLEASE GO TO YOU TUBE.COM AND TYPE IN PHIL WEBB NET, TO VIEW HIS COMMERCIAL…. THANK YOU AND PLEASE PASS THE WORD…”

Doing so takes you to Phil Webb’s YouTube presence, which is poorly branded (the video is actually part of Champagne Films’ page, not a dedicated Webb page) — but at least he got something up there.

Steven Fulop

Independent Ward E candidate Steven Fulop’s web strategy rivaled Team Healy’s for its sophistication and bested all the other campaigns for its use of emerging web tools and technologies (perhaps no surprise since the councilman is an avid iPhone user).

His main site was contemporary in design, with a Flash banner headline and various multimedia elements prominently displayed. The navigation was clear, the content was easy to find and the site loaded relatively quickly.

The Fulop campaign was the clear leader on Facebook, with three different pages, in addition to his personal page.

The largest page was the Councilman Steven Fulop common interest group, which as of this writing boasts 449 members and an active “Wall.” The older Steven Fulop 2009 common interest group has 36 members, while the related Fulop Commitment profile page has 45 friends.

Despite placing no traditional video advertising on local cable, the Fulop campaign did produce web videos and hosted them on their YouTube page. Most of them feature Fulop speaking on issues at events, with the exception of the one post-election video — a slick “thank you” video shot on election night.

The Fulop campaign was the only one besides the Healy campaign to use Twitter, and was a very active tweeter during the campaign. He’s since discontinued one of the Twitter accounts and now lives @StevenFulop. His Twitter page, which he still updates, is worth following for random bits of insight into City Council and Council Caucus meetings (June 1, 6:16 pm: “Gaughan is mad…. Vega not so much”).

From Bits to Ballots

If there is one thing that cannot be stressed enough, it is that the best new media strategy will never change a fundamental fact of politics: if you can’t get out the vote, you won’t win the election. This year’s elections were determined by about 20 percent of the city’s registered voters, and the votes broke overwhelmingly for Mayor Healy’s slate in every ward, with the exception of Fulop’s runaway win in Ward E.

Only part of this can be ascribed to voter apathy. Getting out the vote was essential to Healy’s opponents, but the votes never materialized. While traditional get out the vote efforts often require massive investment in campaign organization, funds which Healy’s opponents simply did not have, they can be overcome by an influx of motivated, coordinated volunteers.

One of the major benefits of new media is the relatively low cost of entry to a campaign. All the tools available are free, like most of the web, requiring only an investment of talent and careful planning. With said talent and planning, new media can be a great leveling device, especially in local elections, helping to mitigate organizational or fundraising difficulties. But while this year’s election was well ahead of the last election with regard to use of new media and social networks, it was still light years behind the kind of integrated use present in many innovative national campaigns, and far below their potential. This is part of what kept the big-fundraising incumbents in office.

TIPS FOR SUCCESS

• Focus on search engine optimization for your sites, to improve search results for your content.
• Manage social networks effectively, interactively and in relation to on-the-ground organizing.
• Empower and involve your supporters in online communities so that they not only vote themselves, but encourage friends to vote as well on election day (bring a friend to the polls).
• Optimize and maximize online fundraising, stressing easy-to-give small, recurring donations in a secure online environment that is one click away.
• Let your supporters carry your message themselves, through their own projects. Make these satellite projects accessible and give people access to online tools that will help them do this.
• Engage the mobile web via Twitter and SMS text messaging.
• Get your organizers connected. Get them smartphones. Get them workshops.
• However: Realize there is no such thing as a social media expert.

Additional reporting by Jon Whiten.

- The state Supreme Court heard oral arguments yesterday in the legal battle over the city’s ordinance that limits handgun purchases to one gun per person per month. Bill Matsikoudis, the city’s top attorney, told the court that Jersey City’s only gun shop — Caso’s Gun-O-Rama Inc. — sold weapons used in 87 gun crimes from 1989-1997 and made 166 multiple gun sales from 1995 to 2000. The New Jersey Law Journal (article online for subscribers only) says the justices “seem sympathetic to Jersey City’s effort to limit handgun purchases to one per month per person but dubious about whether state law allows it.”

- Ward C City Council candidate Nidia Rivera Lopez says a hacker broke into her Facebook page over the weekend and sent porno links to her supporters.

- Clergymen held a vigil yesterday at Greenville park where a 17-year-old boy was murdered last week. They prayed and called on Mayor Healy to fight crime in the “neglected inner city.”

- Cops say a suspect in a 2005 Heights murder was arrested in Maryland on Friday.

In statewide news:

- The state Supreme Court will hear arguments today on the legality of Gov. Corzine’s new school funding formula.

- The state will receive more than $27 million in federal stimulus funds to be used for anti-poverty programs.

- Get ready for the panic: state health officials say they have identified five probable cases of swine flu in people who recently traveled to Mexico and California.

- The state Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments today on changing the way bail is set for immigrants who are charged with crimes while facing deportation.

- Gov. Corzine’s re-election campaign is asking contributors to donate to a Democratic Party account he previously said should not be used for gubernatorial elections because the practice was considered a way to skirt the state’s pay-to-play law.

- The state Libertarian Party has nominated Kenneth Kaplan as its candidate for Governor.

- A federal court monitor says the state’s maligned Department of Children and Families is now structurally strong enough to protect children at risk of abuse and neglect.

photo by wally g

Early in February, while checking the streams of Facebook status updates of my acquaintances, I came across an interesting tidbit: Someone had joined the group “Save the Jersey Journal.”

There were only a handful of members, but it was just a week after the Evening Journal Association, which publishes the tabloid daily, announced an April 13 expiration date for the 142-year-old paper if its revenue was not sufficient to support a “reduced expense plan.”

Since then, the Facebook group has grown quickly as the fate of the newspaper remains uncertain. As of this writing, it had 124 members, including Ward E Councilman Steven Fulop and mayoral candidate Dan Levin.

“I decided it was the very least I could do to show the publishers that people care,” Kate Kaye says when asked why she started the group. The 36-year-old journalist who covers the digital marketing industry says she is all too familiar with the woes of the newspaper business, but she felt she needed to do something about the potential loss of the Journal.

“I realize to many this seems like a futile effort, and as one who has covered the online newspaper sector for years as a business reporter, I’m well aware of the reality — and cynicism — print papers face,” she says. “But I’m also someone who recognizes the value of having a daily print publication for any city for historical, cultural, communal, political, and utilitarian purposes.”

Much of the print media industry has been decimated over the past decade, as more and more people have turned to the internet — often branded web extensions of an existing print product — for news. It’s an old story by now: Circulations are sliding, ad revenues are in the tank and newspapers can’t figure out how to make money online.

It is in this environment that the Journal, which I freelanced for several years ago, currently finds itself. The paper, which is owned by the Newhouse family’s privately-held media conglomerate Advance Publications, has reportedly faced declining circulation, staff numbers and revenue for years. (Journal Publisher Kendrick Ross did not respond to our invitations to comment on this story.)

In 2005, when the paper transitioned from a broadsheet format to the current tabloid look, the New York Times reported that daily circulation was at 26,600, down from a peak of around 150,000 in the mid-1970s. This circulation slide came despite the Journal‘s absorption of its last major competitor, the Hudson Dispatch, in 1991. (The Journal merged with two other main competitors — the Jersey Observer and the Bayonne Times — in 1951 and 1971, respectively.) In 2002, when the paper faced similar threats of closure, reports said the Journal was losing as much as $4 million annually.

Reporter Ron Leir, the president of the Newspaper Guild’s Local 42, says that when he started as a full-time employee at the Journal in February 1972, there were about 60 editorial department employees. By 2002, that number had shrunk to 36, and today Leir says it is about 13 there are 13 editorial employees that are part of the Guild. (There are also eight editorial positions considered “management.”)* And at a meeting this week between editorial employees and management, the company expressed its interest in getting four to six additional newsroom staffers to leave voluntarily.

What kind of fat incentives is the paper offering for those who choose to leave? Paid health coverage for as much time as the employee would normally be entitled to severance pay under the union’s current contract.

Leir explains that this would range from as little as two or three weeks to 48 weeks, the mark at which severance pay is capped. Translated: If Leir, who has been employed full-time at the paper for 37 years, decides to take management up on its offer, he will be rewarded with less than one year of health coverage.

In addition, the company seeks to remove the nine-month cap currently placed on an intern’s tenure at the paper. Leir says the Journal now has “nearly as many” interns as staff writers, and that as higher-level editorial employees have moved on or moved up, their positions often haven’t been filled. Instead, they’ve often been replaced by interns. He says that the company also wants “total flexibility” if the paper survives past April 13, which translates to assigning any type of job to any reporter at any time.

“They want the ultimate efficiency machine,” Leir says.

When asked how a newsroom of less than 20 people could produce a comprehensive daily paper — and do it well — Leir acknowledges that’s “part of our concern” and says “we need to negotiate a better deal.” They will attempt to do just that when they present some sort of counter-proposal to management next week.

Other departments at the paper have shrunk as well. For example, as part of the last-minute 2002 deal that kept the paper alive, the Newspaper and Mail Deliverers’ Union agreed to halve the number of members employed by the Journal, from 18 to 9. During those same talks, the Professional Employees International Union also agreed to shed half of its employees.

To make matters worse, some observers say the paper’s slow embrace of web technology has put it in an untenable position going forward.

“The Journal needs to improve its presence on the internet,” Ian MacAllen, proprietor of the New York’s Sixth blog, says. “It treats the internet too much like a facsimile of the printed page and doesn’t really take advantage of the possibilities of multimedia, interactivity and the infinite column inches of HTML.”

The 27-year-old Harsimus Cove resident, who reads stories from dozens of papers every day but hasn’t read a printed paper “in two or three years,” says the Journal has failed to address — much less win over — readers like him.

“I’ve been reading the Journal and NJ.com since 2001, and I still don’t know how to navigate through the site,” he says. “The look and feel is still very early 2000s. The site is confusing, poorly laid out, and even the ad placement is not really optimal.”

While MacAllen believes that the city absolutely still needs a daily paper, he doesn’t think it necessarily needs to be printed — or necessarily has to be the Journal.

“The differentiating factor between a publication like the Jersey Journal and some guy in his grandmother’s basement is not whether or not a printing press is used, but in the level of professionalism,” he says. “For some time that professionalism has been absent from the Journal, even if it arrives on paper.”

While Kaye admits that the paper could be improved, she says that the prospect of having no paper is far worse.

“Whether or not the paper always does the best job of covering our city, we need it,” she says. “A lot of people still rely on print papers to read while commuting on the train, enjoying their morning coffee at the diner, whatever.” In addition, many people in the city are still on the wrong side of the digital divide, and they need to be serviced by a print product.

Thurman Hart, a political science lecturer at New Jersey City University, local blogger and member of the Facebook group, agrees that the city needs the daily.

“Given the back-room nature of Jersey politics, just being able to know who to talk to about issues takes a bit of traveling along the learning curve, and the Journal has maintained a staff with sufficient know-how to pull that off,” he says. “If the best disinfectant is sunlight, then the demise of the Journal will do nothing but contribute to the ability of self-interest and graft to defeat the public will in Jersey City.”

Hart says he’s heard the rumors that if the Journal closes, the Star-Ledger, which is also owned by Advance, would begin to cover Hudson County on a more regular basis. But he doesn’t think that’s a great solution either. “I’m sure that the quality of the coverage (as well as the quantity) would suffer,” he says.

For now, the fate of the Journal hangs in the balance and for many, the deathwatch has begun. In 2002, when the paper last faced imminent closure, then-U.S. Rep. Bob Menendez got involved in negotiations and Mayor Glenn Cunningham reached out to the owners with a lucrative incentive package of tax breaks, loans and grants to help keep the paper open. Advance rebuffed the mayor’s advances, telling the New York Times that “under no circumstances should we be seen to even be considering any assistance.”

It looks as if Advance won’t have to worry about “considering any assistance” this time anyway, at least from City Hall. “While we never want to see any newspaper go out of print, especially our local newspaper,” Mayor Healy says, “the Jersey City taxpayers do not have the resources — particularly at this time — to assist in this situation.”

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking. The Journal has started running house ads hawking yearly subscriptions at the bargain basement price of $60 (the normal rate is $120 for a year), Leir remains “guardedly optimistic” about the paper’s future, and Kaye is looking at ways to expand her activism beyond the internet.

“As someone who’s covered digital activism tactics and technologies as a reporter, I’ve had a healthy skepticism regarding their efficacy,” she says. She recognizes that many people in the city don’t even know about the threat to the Journal, much less the Facebook group. In hopes of raising public awareness, she’s also been distributing flyers around the city and is considering getting people together in a meeting or organizing an event to promote subscriptions.

“It’s another crisis to overcome,” Leir says with the weary but level-headed tone of a veteran of previous union battles. “For the sake of our readers, we hope that we can continue to productively serve them the best we can, considering the circumstances.”

*You can find the Save the Jersey Journal Facebook group on the web here.

* We originally reported that there were 13 total editorial employees at the Journal, based on our conversation with reporter Ron Leir. During a subsequent conversation, he pointed out that the 13 figure actually represented the number of editorial employees in the Guild he leads, and that there were eight additional editorial “managers” at the paper. We regret the confusion.