Newark Evening News


The Newark Evening News was an American newspaper published in Newark, New Jersey. As New Jersey's largest city, Newark played a major role in New Jersey's journalistic history. At its apex, The News was widely regarded as the newspaper of record in New Jersey. It had bureaus in Montclair, Elizabeth, Metuchen, Morristown, Plainfield, Kearny, and Belmar. There were also bureaus in the New Jersey State House in Trenton and in Washington, DC.

History

The News was founded in 1883 by Wallace Scudder. The newspaper was operated by the Scudder family for 86 of its 88 years. The grandson of Wallace Scudder, Richard Scudder, worked as the newspaper's publisher from 1952 until 1972.
For years, the paper thrived as a daily and Sunday paper. It had five editorial writers, an editorial cartoonist, a military writer, and an aviation writer. The paper even had a Sunday magazine. However, a great deal of the paper's focus was on politics.
In 1970, the paper was sold to Media General. In February 1971, the newsroom, which had never been organized, voted to go out on strike and walked out in May 1971. The strike lasted almost a full year — not settling until April 1972. It faced increasing competition from the Newark Star-Ledger, and for its final four months, the daily editions of the Newark Evening News were printed on Star-Ledger presses. That was because the paper's new owners had sold the presses, along with the Sunday News edition, to the Star-Ledger.
The paper folded on August 31, 1972.

Historic research

Since its demise, the Newark Public Library acquired the paper's records, including ancillary materials, and has undertaken a major preservation project.

Distinguished ''Newark Evening News'' alumni