Will reconsider once it’s printed inside NJ again
By BILL BARLOW /Special to the Sentinel
OCEAN CITY – After members slammed the Ocean City Sentinel over the publication of opinion pieces from a local resident they found went beyond the pale, Ocean City Council on Thursday removed the newspaper as the city’s designated paper of record.
Members cited the state requirements for the newspaper of record for a community, a designation that determines where the city’s required legal advertisements are published, including budgets, ordinances and public announcements.
The law requires that the paper of record be printed in New Jersey. For decades, the Sentinel was printed in Ocean City at Eighth Street, but more recently has contracted with companies to print the paper. Currently, the paper uses a company in Pennsylvania. The newspaper plans to switch printers next week in order to comply with the requirements for legal advertising.
A member of the public called council’s attention to the law at the last meeting, in the midst of the firestorm of criticism surrounding the guest columns by Ocean City resident John McCall, which took aim at then-President Donald Trump, Councilman Michael DeVlieger and U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew.
McCall also placed a phone call to Van Drew’s house that the congressman described as a threat. The Ocean City Police Department has charged McCall with harassment. That investigation is continuing.
Members of City Council believed the columns went much too far and in a rare move, passed a resolution requesting an apology in March. In multiple statements, Sentinel editor and publisher David Nahan agreed that the columns should not have run as is.
He has apologized in printed editorials and individually to both Van Drew and DeVlieger.
“While it took four months to come, I’ll accept it at his word,” DeVlieger said at the April 8 meeting. He said prior to this incident, he respected both the editor and the paper. “I don’t hold any hate in my heart for David Nahan or the Sentinel.”
Some speakers at the meeting, held at the Ocean City Music Pier, said that should be the end of the matter. Donna Moore said the paper is an important element of the town, in part as an outlet for diverse points of view on its opinion pages.
“We’re a community with differences but we work together,” she said, asking that the paper be given enough time to comply with the state law.
Resident Bill O’Neil went further, saying it was wrong to pull the legal advertisements from a paper that is a historic part of the community.
“I think it’s despicable. You should all be ashamed of yourselves,” he said.
Beth Mallozzi said this was the first time she attended a council meeting since moving to Ocean City.
“One of the great things about our country is that we have freedom of speech and one of the great ways that we do that is through opinion columns. I know I don’t like everybody’s opinions, I will admit. I’m guessing, just guessing, that not everybody will like mine. But you know what? We’re better for having (a newspaper) that will publish opinions,” she told council.
Suzanne Hornick offered a similar point of view, saying the state law being cited was 50 years old, stating that the city should not move to enforce it after it appears to have been forgotten without giving the paper a chance to comply.
“That’s just not right. He made a mistake. It’s time to move on. Anything else just looks petty,” she said.
Other members of the public supported the move, stating it was required by state law.
That was the position of council members, who argued they had no choice but to vote for the change. Councilman Keith Hartzell said he took an oath to uphold state law.
“There’s no in-between. When you put your hand on that Bible, there is nothing more precious,” Hartzell said. “Regardless of my personal feelings, that’s the duty that we uphold.”
The decision came in two resolutions. One, requested at the last City Council meeting, states that the paper of record must comply with all state laws. The other removes the Ocean City Sentinel as the official newspaper of Ocean City and designates The Press of Atlantic City and its Sunday edition as the official newspaper.
Councilman Jody Levchuk said he hopes that the Sentinel is able to find a printer in New Jersey or that the state changes the requirements, stating that he is satisfied that the newspaper did what council asked.
“I honestly hope that happens. I’ve grown up with the Sentinel being our newspaper of Ocean City. I’ve always enjoyed it,” he said. “Obviously, a lot of what transpired has to do with partisan politics, and I don’t wish to get into that.”
Councilman Tomaso Rotondi denied politics has anything to do with the matter.
“This is state law and we’re just complying. It has nothing to do with Jeff Van Drew. I could care less,” he said.
The state requirements were brought to the council’s attention and therefor the governing body must act on them, he said. “It has nothing to do with the politics for me.”
According to Nahan, contacted after the meeting, the Sentinel will be printed in New Jersey within two weeks (as of the April 21 edition).
City attorney Dottie McCrosson told council members that at that point, the paper would likely be required to be returned as the paper of record because it meets all of the requirements, including having an office in Ocean City and a paid circulation.
“Another couple of weeks, we’re told, and they’ll be back in compliance,” she said. “For now, this is where we are.”
She said the newspaper industry has undergone dramatic changes, in terms of circulation and distribution as well as the economics of the business model of ad sales and paid subscriptions. It has also meant there are fewer printing presses, and those that remain have become astronomically expensive to maintain.
Nahan has stated that it became impossible to find staff who could operate and maintain the press in Ocean City, even before the building that housed the press was damaged in Hurricane Sandy.
It’s not just The Sentinel. The Press of Atlantic City prints in New Jersey, but not at its Pleasantville location where it once had a press. The Wildwood Leader printed in North Wildwood for decades, but long ago idled the press and sold the building because of the expense of maintaining and repairing the presses. The Cape May County Herald also prints out of state, although it remains the paper of record for Cape May County.
“The Cape May Herald is in the same situation,” McCrosson said. “I’m quite sure that Cape May County does not realize that the paper that they have designated as their official paper has the same problem. And it’s not that they are thwarting the law. It’s just these things have been happening in that industry.”
She said it would be a “pause” with the Ocean City Sentinel. An attorney with Sample Media, the parent company of the Sentinel, told McCrosson that the current edition (April 14) will be the last one published out of state.
“Since it’s the only paper published in Ocean City, (the) law will require it to become the official paper again,” she said.
“At such time that the Sentinel can provide concrete, irrefutable proof that they are printing in the state of New Jersey, this council will reconsider its position. But until such time, we cannot knowingly and willfully violate the law,” Council President Bob Barr said.
DeVlieger abstained from both resolutions, with each of the other council members present voting in favor.