The Press: Speechless in Jersey

In New Jersey's teeming (pop. 700,000) Hudson County, where annual county and city elections are among the liveliest in the U.S., newsmen who are willing to turn out speeches and publicity for political candidates have long found a rewarding short-term market for their talents. Reporters on Sam Newhouse's Jersey Journal (circ. 98,565) have enjoyed a virtual monopoly as political pressagents. The opposition Hudson Dispatch, the county's only other comparable pool of literary talent, has traditionally barred its employees from participating in political campaigns, while the Journal's policy has been to grant staffers...