The newspaper was first published as
The Evening Record, on June 5, 1895, by Evan G. Runner. Based on Main Street in Hackensack, Runner had two investors initially, Frank Cook and George Alden, and went through many others until 1920. At that time, a group of eight investors bought the company, which had changed its name to
The Evening Record and Bergen County Herald. Two of the 1920 investors were Matt C. Ely and John Borg. Ely and Borg bought out the other investors, and partnered as publisher and editor for a number of years. The name was simplified in 1922 to
The Bergen Evening Record. Second generation John Borg retired in 1949, but his son Donald had been involved in the newspaper for many years, and took over his role. It was one of the papers whose editorial position was in favor of the Metropolitan Regional Council (MRC) 1971 was a critical year for
The Record. Malcolm took over business management of the company, Recession hit in 1989, just as the company amassed a large debt to build a new plant. Cost cutting measures included layoffs, early retirement packages, furloughs, and other actions. In 1996, the paper won the coveted Gerald Loeb Award for its series "Formula for Disaster: The Lodi Explosion" by Michael Moore, Bruce Locklin and Debra Lynn Vial. The series was the catalyst for the creation of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. In 2011, the paper's headquarters were moved to Woodland Park, the offices of sister paper
Herald News, which is published as a Passaic County edition of
The Record. ==Format and style==