ABSTRACT
The once rural townships of central New Jersey are almost totally suburban. Middlesex County is virtually filled to the brim, with many of its residents commuting each day to New York. The vast open spaces of Somerset County, which once boasted more horses than people, now host corporate headquarters and suburban housing developments. The Home News is a century-old family-owned newspaper still loyal to the city that gave it birth. In 1957, as the paper was outgrowing its plant in downtown New Brunswick, the board of directors chose a new site that appeared to be in the suburbs, but actually lay within the city limits. The mid-1970s was a very good time for a number of New Jersey newspapers, but for others, like the Courier-News, it was a period of very little change, with no growth in circulation, no growth in advertising, and no improvement in its news pages.
