One of the two papers that merged to form the now-
Herald News was the
North Jersey Herald-News, which grew from the mergers of several papers in the Passaic-Clifton metropolitan area, and for many years was known as the
Passaic Herald News. The paper was headquartered at the intersection of Main Avenue and Highland Avenue in Passaic, just over the border with Clifton. In the 1970s, the paper became known as the
North Jersey Herald-News and was owned by the Drukker family, with former Congressman
Dow Drukker founding the paper and relative Austin Crane Drukker owning and publishing the paper by the early 1980s. Beginning publication in 1890, the
Paterson Evening News was one of several daily papers that called the county seat of Passaic county home. The paper's chief competitor was the
Paterson Morning Call, which eventually grew and absorbed the
Paterson Morning News to become the
Paterson News and Call. By the 1970s the
News and Call and
Evening News were the two remaining papers in Paterson. The two eventually merged in 1980, operating out of the headquarters of the
Evening News on 16th Avenue, and became simply known as
The News. At the time, the paper was owned by
Allbritton Communications Company. In 1985,
MediaNews Group bought
The News from Albritton. Shortly thereafter, the Drukker family sold control of the
Herald-News to a MediaNews affiliate. MediaNews continued to operate both
The News and the
Herald-News out of their respective plants in Paterson and Passaic while beginning to plan a merger. In July 1987, the weekend editions of
The News and
North Jersey Sunday (the name for the Sunday
Herald-News) were merged. Then, in September, MediaNews finalized the merger of the daily editions and the paper became known as
The North Jersey Herald & News. Following the merger the former
Evening News headquarters were closed, and publishing operations were moved to the old
Herald-News headquarters in Passaic. The
Evening News building is now used by a Paterson elementary school. For its new combined paper, MediaNews developed the slogan "FIRST with the news...everyday!" and designed an accompanying rising sun logo. In 1997 MediaNews sold the paper to the Borg family, owners of
The Record of
Hackensack, New Jersey. In 2000, North Jersey Media Group was formed as a holding company for the Borgs' assets, including the
Herald News. Early in the 2000s, the paper dropped the ampersand from its name, and later would drop "North Jersey" as well, just being called the
Herald News. Shortly thereafter, the operations of both
The Record and the
Herald News were merged. North Jersey Media Group set up a new headquarters in what is now Woodland Park (at the time, the municipality was still known as West Paterson) and moved the entire operation of the
Herald News there. They also moved most of the operations of
The Record, including its former Passaic County bureau that was located in
Wayne, New Jersey, to the new site. Later, North Jersey Media Group closed the former
Record headquarters in Hackensack and consolidated the remaining resources there into the corporate headquarters in Woodland Park. The two papers have operated largely as a single entity, featuring mostly the same stories but laid out in different areas; for instance, an article might be on the front page of
The Record but be found somewhere inside the main section of the
Herald News. Gannett ceased this practice following their acquisition of both papers and both are now identically printed, with the only differences being the papers’ respective mastheads. The
Herald News' primary area of concentration is in Passaic County, while also covering news in the suburbs of the county (areas of
Bergen,
Essex, and
Morris Counties) as well. ==Lineage==