Town Topics (newspaper)

Town Topics
Masthead logo
TypeWeekly newspaper
FormatTabloid
OwnerWitherspoon Media Group
Founders
Editor-in-chief
Lynn Adams Smith
Founded1946 (1946)
LanguageEnglish
HeadquartersPrinceton, New Jersey, USA
Circulation15,600[1]
PriceSingle issues: $5.00 mailed and 75 cents at newsstands. (July 25, 2007)
Sister newspapers
Princeton Magazine
Websitewww.towntopics.com
Free online archives
Princeton University Library

Town Topics is a weekly newspaper based in Princeton, New Jersey, with an estimated circulation of 15,600.

History

Wellesley College graduate Emily "Cissy" Stuart (née Cowenhoven) and her husband, Princeton University graduate Donald C. Stuart Jr., first worked together at the Princeton Herald, a weekly newspaper which operated out of Princeton, New Jersey. In 1946 they established Town Topics as a weekly newspaper covering Princeton, together with Mary and Dan Coyle, Cissy's sister and brother-in-law.[2][3] After Donald's death in 1981, the newspaper was administered by the Stuarts' son, Donald C. "Jeb" Stuart III (who became its editor-in-chief), and his wife Sheila.[4][5] On April 2, 1989, Cissy was stabbed to death in her Mercer Street home in a quiet neighborhood near Princeton University.[5][6] No suspects were ever identified, and as of January 2025, the case had yet to be solved.[5]

Town Topics was purchased in 2001 from the Stuart family[3][7] by a consortium led by Lynn Adams Smith, together with architect J. Robert Hillier and a small group of former employees. Town Topics purchased Princeton Magazine in 2008, and in 2012 launched LifeStories Magazine and Urban Agenda. All publications are now under the umbrella name of Witherspoon Media Group. Lynn Adams Smith is the editor-in-chief of Town Topics and Princeton Magazine.

Description

Based in Princeton, New Jersey, the newspaper is known for its coverage of the township and its largest institution, Princeton University. While news coverage is mostly local, the newspaper's arts and entertainment coverage[3] is more regional, with a coverage area that covers roughly the Trenton to New Brunswick portion of the Northeast Corridor. Town Topics is distributed to households in parts of the New Jersey municipalities of nearby Hopewell Borough, Hopewell Township, West Windsor Township, Lawrence Township, Pennington, Montgomery Township, and South Brunswick Township.

The newspaper was distributed free to readers in Princeton until 1980, when it switched to a subscription model.[3] Its back pages are largely filled with real estate advertisements. The newspaper has an estimated circulation of 15,600.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 Rein, Richard K. (February 1, 2017) "Princeton Packet and Town Topics Duel in the Driveway". Community News. Retrieved July 3, 2026.
  2. ↑ Watterson, Kathryn (July 2, 1989) "A Life Taken, a Town's Illusion Lost". The New York Times. Retrieved July 1, 2026. (subscription required) "... Stuart ... was killed in the shadows of her basement at 34 Mercer Street. Mrs. Stuart, known as Cissy, was one of Princeton's best-known residents ... she was often seen striding up Nassau Street past Princeton University, less than five minutes from her home ... According to the Mercer County Prosecutor, Paul T. Koenig Jr., an autopsy showed that she had died quickly from shock and massive internal bleeding caused by multiple stab wounds between the shoulder blades. There was no sign of a struggle and no apparent motive for the crime ... Princeton Borough Police Chief, Michael Carnevale, says that there is 'nothing to report' and that no suspects have been apprehended, although he has assigned all five detectives of his 32-member police force to the investigation ... When she graduated from Wellesley College in 1937, she came back to Princeton and worked at The Princeton Herald with her future husband, Donald C. Stuart Jr., a Princeton University graduate. In 1946, Mrs. Stuart, with her husband, sister and brother-in-law, founded Town Topics, a local weekly newspaper that is now edited and published by her older son, Donald C. Stuart 3d. Mrs. Stuart's husband, from whom she was divorced in 1967, died of cancer in 1981.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Papers of Princeton – Town Topics. Princeton University Library. Retrieved July 3, 2026.
  4. ↑ King, Susan (June 14, 1992) "Charles Stuart: When Mom is Murdered". Los Angeles Times. Archived April 6, 2019, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved June 29, 2026. (subscription required)
  5. 1 2 3 Shea, Kevin. (January 5, 2025) "A Mystery, Decades Later: Who Killed the Grand Dame of Princeton?". The Star-Ledger. Newark, New Jersey. – via Newspapers.com. Archived March 24, 2026, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved August 7, 2026. (subscription required)
  6. ↑ Johnson, Christine M. (April 6, 1989) "Princeton Murder Case is First There in 11 Years". The Philadelphia Inquirer. United Press International. p. B05.
  7. ↑ Shea, Kevin. (April 24, 2005) "Turning Up Heat on 1989 Cold Case – Princeton Borough Chief Wants Cissy Stuart's Killer". The Times. – via Newspapers.com. p. A22. Retrieved August 19, 2026. (subscription required) "Jeb Stuart ... sold the paper in 2001."
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