Here’s our latest list of New Jersey’s news outlets — did we miss anyone?
The latest count shows 700+ local outlets serving New Jersey, down slightly from 2020 report
For the past 10 years, the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University has analyzed the local news and information ecosystem in New Jersey and kept track of changes.
In 2020, the Center published its first full ecosystem analysis and map of New Jersey news outlets. At that time, the Center identified and mapped 779 local news providers.
That list included all organizations “that would be recognized as ‘traditional’ journalism outlets — newspapers, local television, and radio stations airing local news at the top and bottom of the hour. Also included were digital-native online newspapers, many of which are owned and/or staffed by former legacy-outlet reporters, as well as qualifying magazines serving ethnic, LGBTQ, and religious communities, if they provide regular local news as defined above.”
Local news providers needed to produce at least one piece of original content per month to be included. Five years later, the Center is updating that ecosystem analysis — and we need your help.
To begin our update, we used the original list of news outlets from that 2020 news ecosystem analysis by Dr. Sarah Stonbely, which merged 13 media lists to create a master database of news outlets serving the state. This database was then checked and updated over the past few months to ensure outlets were still in business, remove those that had closed, and update all related information to ensure accuracy. Additionally, some new outlets were added to the database.
Overall, we have found about 700 news outlets currently providing local news coverage in New Jersey, a slight decrease from our 2020 count.
Today, we’re releasing that list of news organizations and asking for your input. We want to identify any outlets that are missing, were included by mistake, or should be excluded.
Is your news organization on our list? Is the information we have accurate? Please let us know. Take a look at the list here or via the embed below and let me know if you have suggestions for changes by emailing siemaszkoh@montclair.edu.
This database will be the central piece in our updated ecosystem analysis, which we aim to publish later this year. In addition to the database, we will soon send out surveys to all news outlets we have identified, inquiring specifically about what regions they cover to help identify true news deserts in New Jersey.
The study will also ask survey respondents to identify what kinds of topics they cover, allowing for a cross-study with Rutgers University Professor Matthew Weber’s content analysis of topics of coverage in local news outlets.
We’ll put all of that information together with other data we’ve been gathering about the news landscape in New Jersey for the final report.
Be sure to sign up for one of our newsletters if you want to be notified about the report when it is released.
Hanna Siemazsko is the research director at the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University. Contact her via email at siemaszkoh@montclair.edu.
About the Center for Cooperative Media: The Center is a primarily grant-funded program of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. Its mission is to grow and strengthen local journalism and support an informed society in New Jersey and beyond. The Center is supported with funding from Montclair State University, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Democracy Fund, the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium, the Independence Public Media Foundation, Rita Allen Foundation, Inasmuch Foundation and John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. For more information, visit centerforcooperativemedia.org.
