Joanna Gagis stood before top business leaders in the state last week to accept a Women of Inspiration award from the New Jersey State Chamber. It was recognition she earned as a key journalist at NJ Spotlight News.
She accepted the award as the new communications director for the New Jersey Turnpike Authority.
We understand why the Turnpike Authority was so thrilled to hire her. As a former journalist, she is someone who understands the landscape and can communicate it with speed, accuracy, and a commitment to clarity and truth.
We just wish it hadn’t happened.
In an industry that’s shrinking by the day, it astounds us that someone so respected for her work, and so connected to the key people in the state, was allowed to leave the profession.
Gagis wasn’t fired from her job. She simply wasn’t retained when operational control of NJ PBS was given to Montclair State this year.
Lead anchor Briana Vannozzi met the same fate. Her departure (or lack of retention) was another huge loss for our profession.
Gagis has found a new role. Vannozzi will, too. It’s uncertain whether it will be in our industry.
I know that crossroads firsthand.
As I watched Gagis accept her award, I couldn’t help thinking how common her path has become.
My own career followed a similar trajectory. I left my job as a journalist for Bloomberg News in 2025 after a 28-year career there. Within months I found myself working as communications director for a statewide nonprofit, writing stories and helping to craft media strategy. While the role was meaningful, it lasted less than a year before I returned to journalism with my position at BINJE.
Less than a quarter-century ago, the U.S. had about 40 journalists per 100,000 residents on average. Now, the equivalent number is 8.2 per 100,000, about a 75% decline, according to a study from MuckRack and Rebuild Local News. The study ranked New Jersey’s ratio as 49th out of 50 states.
In New Jersey alone, researchers from the Computational Media Lab at Rutgers University identified the loss of more than 100 local media outlets statewide between 2020 and 2025.
“With fewer legacy outlets, and fewer beat reporters, there is a significant threat to routine coverage of local and state issues,” Rutgers researchers said in their report.
The transfer of talent may be good for organizations, but it’s bad for the public.
When someone like Gagis leaves journalism, she takes with her an incredible amount of institutional knowledge of the state and the business of covering it. That kind of expertise is hard to replace. In an industry that’s rapidly shrinking, it hurts when we don’t do more to keep talented journalists in the profession. A state with fewer journalists is one with less oversight and transparency, and fewer people dedicated to informing the public.
So, we salute Gagis on her Women of Inspiration honor, and we hope it’s a reminder of the importance of keeping talented journalists in our industry whenever possible. Losing journalists of her caliber is not just a loss for journalism. It’s a loss for New Jersey.
