By Scott Weingart

New Jersey has faced a chronic news deficit because of peculiarities of its geography and economic development. From the time of the nation’s founding, the state has developed in the shadow of the two great cities across its borders, New York and Philadelphia, and failed to develop a major urban center of its own.

So instead of watching local newscasts devoted to New Jersey issues, people in the northern part of the state watch TV news oriented to New York City, while southern New Jerseyans watch stations based in Philadelphia. Many New Jersey residents also listen to out-of-state radio stations and read out-of-state newspapers. As a result, they know less about their own state’s news than citizens of other states know about theirs.

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