July 30, 1889
The Jersey City News debuted on February 25, 1889 in Jersey City, New Jersey. Billed as “The only Democratic daily published in Jersey City,” the News was presented as an alternative to the Republican-leaning Evening Journal. Republicans dominated this period nationally, and so besides attacking GOP positions on local concerns, the Jersey City News was known to blast them nationwide too. Early in the run-up to war with Spain, when it appeared that the McKinley administration preferred to avoid conflict, the News denounced the president’s decision as opportunistic. In a March 29, 1898 editorial entitled “The National Shame,” the News scornfully explained that “[Cuban] leaders are not as big fools as McKinley is. They have their brutal tyrants practically beaten now, and they are not going to surrender their advantages now because Mark Hanna sees more money in peace than war.” However, any contempt the News had for Republicans quickly abated when President McKinley was assassinated on September 14, 1901. The paper offered a sympathetic voice both for McKinley’s widow and the nation as it mourned its fallen leader. “Whatever may have been the faults or errors of William McKinley’s career. . . [H]e is the martyr of our National system, and as such he is beyond criticism . . .”
In its early years, the Jersey City News was known to focus attention to Irish nationalist movements. With one of the largest populations in the state at the time, Jersey City contained a large Irish-American community including James Luby, the Irish-born editor of the Jersey City News. Luby’s father was Thomas Clarke Luby, a journalist and well-known member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. According to his New York Times obituary of December 1, 1901, the elder Luby had been imprisoned in England for his revolutionary actions and was eventually exiled to America, before finally settling in Jersey City. The younger Luby had already established himself in the United States as a respected journalist at the time of his father’s arrival. A News headline appearing on March 2, 1889, called “Gladstone’s Triumph” is an example of the slant the paper took towards Irish Home Rule, for British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone was a noted and unlikely supporter of the cause.
The Jersey City News was short lived. James Luby left the paper in 1903 to take a copy editor position at the New York Sun, and he eventually replaced Chester Sanders Lord as the Sun’s managing editor in 1913. The Jersey City News continued for three more years until finally ceasing publication on December 22, 1906.
The National Digital Newspaper Program is funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and is a collaboration among Rutgers University Libraries, the New Jersey State Archives, and the New Jersey State Library.
(contributed by Deborah Mercer, New Jersey State Library)