New Jersey’s biggest newspaper, the Star-Ledger, said Wednesday that it will stop publishing its print edition in February amid rising costs and slumping demand for print.

The 85-year-old publication’s owner Advance Local said it is also closing the Montville, NJ production facility and ending the print publication of dallies The Times of Trenton and the South Jersey Times, as well as the weekly Hunterdon County Democrat.

“Today’s announcement represents the next step into the digital future of journalism in New Jersey,” said Steve Alessi, president of NJ Advance Media. “It’s important to emphasize that this is a forward-looking decision that allows us to invest more deeply than ever in our journalism and in serving our communities.”

The newspaper has a storied history in the Garden State. In 1939, SI Newhouse bought Newark’s first daily newspaper, the Star-Eagle and merged it with the Newark Ledger to become the Newark Star-Ledger.

Newark was dropped from the title in the Seventies.

Alessi said there will be layoffs as a result.

The company did not respond to requests about how many employees will be let go.

The final print editions of the Star-Ledger, Times of Trenton and South Jersey Times will be published on Feb. 2, 2025.

The final weekly print edition of the Hunterdon County Democrat will be published on Jan. 30, 2025, and its subscribers will have access to the Star-Ledger online newspaper.

The online newspapers for The Star-Ledger, The Times of Trenton and South Jersey Times will continue to be produced seven days a week for subscribers.

According to Alessi, ceasing print publication will allow NJ Advance Media to reallocate resources to strengthen its core newsroom, and that there are plans to grow the newsroom in 2025 in order to bolster its reporting in new areas.

The exec applauded the strong journalism this year that helped the paper win awards, including the Punch Sulzberger Innovator of Year prize for journalist Adam Clark from the Poynter Journalism Awards, and two Sigma Delta Chi awards for Spencer Kent’s feature story “The Stranger in the Mirror” and a portfolio of sports columns by Steve Politi.

Alessi also called out the paper’s investigative reports on the financial mismanagement of New Jersey charter schools, as well as a series of true crime podcasts and newsletters.

Despite the robust work, readers have steadily shifted their readership habits from print to digital over the years.

In 2024, Star-Ledger print circulation is down 21% in the last year, the company said.

In recent years, the production and distribution costs of newspapers have jumped while the number of print readers have dwindled and migrated to digital platforms, the outlet said.

Despite winning a string of Pulitzer Prizes in the early to mid-2000s, the paper’s parent Advance Media began a broader consolidation of its New Jersey-based properties.

Under its NJ Advance Media group, an umbrella organization that included the Times of Trenton, the South Jersey Times and other properties, it consolidated the Ledger and NJ.com into one operation.

As a result, the Ledger shuttered its Newark newsroom where it had operated for decades, and sold it to a New York developer.

Over the years, the paper has seen more consolidation and changes, including the ending the publication of its Saturday edition in 2023.

Wes Turner, an executive who works with The Star-Ledger, said the decision to cease printing paper altogether was difficult.

“This decision was not made lightly, but the reality is that the print news model cannot be sustained,” he said.

Turner added that the company would be providing impacted employees with severance and transition assistance packages ahead of the closure.

Despite the grim reality of print edition, Alessi stressed that the future of journalism is still bright.

“Our journalists are out in the field, in our communities, turning over stones, and shining light on essential subjects,” he said. “We consider the future of journalism in New Jersey and our newsroom to be very healthy.”