A letter to our readers about newspaper endorsements

Newspaper endorsements once carried considerable weight in New Jersey politics, particularly when local editorial boards closely followed candidates, covered their campaigns, and commanded the attention of readers who trusted their judgment.

But those days are largely gone.

Declining circulation, shrinking newsrooms, and the disappearance of local editorial boards have diminished the influence of newspaper endorsements, raising questions about whether they still persuade voters or simply reinforce opinions already held.

The New Jersey Globe has long questioned the electoral value of newspaper endorsements, particularly when the newspapers making them devote little attention to the races themselves.  In 2018, we cited a Pew Research Center study finding that 69% of voters didn’t care which candidates newspapers endorsed.

The problem is especially pronounced at newspaper chains like Gannett, where centralized editorial operations can make endorsements with limited connections to the communities whose voters they seek to influence.

Perhaps the clearest indication of how much newspaper endorsements are valued these days came from the Star-Ledger, now an online publication associated with NJ.com. When the newspaper abandoned its print edition in February 2025, its owners also eliminated the entire editorial board and laid off its editorial writers, including longtime editorial page editor Tom Moran. The newspaper, once home to one of New Jersey’s most influential editorial voices, decided it could live without one.

And sometimes, the significance of an endorsement is deliberately overstated.

After Gannett’s USA Today Network endorsed Rebecca Bennett for Congress in New Jersey’s 7th district, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee issued a press release proclaiming, “Tom Kean Jr.’s hometown newspaper endorses Rebecca Bennett for Congress.”

That’s quite a stretch.

Kean’s hometown, Westfield, has a vibrant weekly newspaper, The Westfield Leader, and a significant local news website, TAPinto Westfield. The Courier News, the Gannett daily that published the endorsement, has minimal circulation in Westfield, or anywhere else in the 7th district.  Calling it Kean’s hometown newspaper creates an impression that bears little resemblance to reality.

Still, newspaper endorsements are not entirely without value. Campaigns use them in advertising, fundraising appeals, and communications with undecided voters. A newspaper’s institutional reputation can still lend a candidate credibility.  But there is a difference between winning an endorsement and having voters actually see it.  The Courier News, the Gannett-owned daily newspaper serving Somerset County and parts of Central New Jersey, had a reported daily print circulation of just 1,337 copies in 2024, according to figures attributed to the Alliance for Audited Media (AAM). That’s down from 37,282 copies two decades ago.

And none of this means endorsements aren’t news.

The New Jersey Globe will continue to report newspaper endorsements, just as we report endorsements from labor unions, business organizations, elected officials, and other influential voices in New Jersey politics.  They are political developments that deserve coverage, regardless of whether they change a single vote.

Reporting an endorsement is not the same as embracing it. We will provide appropriate context, examine the claims made by campaigns, and let readers decide what significance, if any, to attach to it.

The New Jersey Globe does not endorse political candidates. We believe our responsibility is to give readers the information they need to make their own decisions. We examine candidates’ records, scrutinize their claims, and hold them accountable. We cover elections because voters deserve to know as much as possible about the people seeking to represent them, not because they need us to tell them how to vote.

Our credibility rests on our independence, our fairness, and the trust of our readers.

Our job is to report who newspapers endorse.  Your job is to decide whether you care.