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NJN DEVELOPING NEW PROJECTS FOR MULTIPLE PLATFORMS, DIVERSE AUDIENCES
After several months of research and development, NJN has begun an active period of experimentation, pilot programs, and test projects to strengthen its community role as a partner, convener, and marketplace of ideas. The goal of these projects is to learn about NJN’s potential as a leader in the reinvention of public media, with a focus on differentiation, diversity, innovation, optimal use of new technologies, and community engagement.
“We’ve studied the competitive and changing media landscape,” explains NJN Interim Executive Director and NJN Interim Foundation President Howard Blumenthal, “and we understand that in order for NJN to both serve the public and provide a service differentiated from WNET and WHYY, NJN must focus on news and public affairs about the Garden State, and must also produce a large amount of New Jersey-centric programming not only for NJN’s prime-time schedule, but for every current and future media platform. Today, we’re announcing the first group of new NJN multiplatform ‘transmedia’ projects.
“To make things happen, we’re either in partnership or in conversation with a wide range of community members and donors,” says Blumenthal, “and we look forward to connecting with an even wider range of people with diverse interests to make sure NJN is serving community needs in a cost-effective, future-thinking, creative way.”
This first group of projects is in active development for the remainder of calendar year 2010:
- NJ FRESH! is a new NJN project about New Jersey’s freshly grown food: where to find it, what to buy and when, how to prepare it, and how to focus personal eating habits on local food. The first test episodes of NJ FRESH! feature visits to the Collingswood Farmers Market, the Hunterdon Land Trust Farmers Market, the Burlington Farmers Market, and the Sussex County Farmers Market as well as the A. T. Buzby Farm, Comeback Farm, Dana Ray Farm, Spring Dairy, Bobolink Dairy, Busy Bee Farm, 1895 Organic Farm, Hunter’s Farm, and Little Hooves Romneys. Chefs Barbara Seelig-Brown (of the PBS series Stress Free Cooking), Nunzio Patruno of Nunzio Ristorante Rustico and Matt McPherson of Matt's Red Rooster Grill, prepare tantalizing meals from Jersey Fresh produce. This projectis being developed, in part, through a grant from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. NJ FRESH! is being developed to build an online community and, in time, a “real life” community that will meet up at New Jersey’s farmer’s markets, so community members become part of the cast of this multiplatform project.
- NJ EATS! celebrates the ethnic diversity of New Jersey by visiting a wide range of restaurants from different cultures throughout the state. Inspired by the success of the Food Network, NJN raises the ante by encouraging viewers to visit restaurants along with the project's producers and hosts. A web community will select the restaurants to be featured on the television series; the community's participants will dine along with us and encourage others to come along. From Middle Eastern to Korean, Mexican to Ethiopian, this moveable feast comes with a pair of secondary items on the menu: a focus on small businesses and economic development at a neighborhood level and, through good food, encourage diverse groups of people in New Jersey to better understand one another.
- Jersey.Today restarts NJN’s original programming effort for NJN Public Radio. In September, October and November, NJN Public Radio will feature an original daily hour each weekday at 1 pm (repeated at 9 pm), with podcasts and audio streams available any time on the NJN website. Initially, the series will focus on interviews by and about the people of New Jersey based upon questions submitted by listeners – truly, this is community-driven radio. Jersey.Today’s daily hours will be hosted by members of the NJN News team, including senior political correspondent Michael Aron, senior anchor Jim Hooker, health & medical correspondent Sara Lee Kessler and others. In addition, programs will be hosted by other prominent New Jersey citizens, including Dr. Marc Mappen, former executive director of the NJ Historical Commission, and Seema Singh, attorney, president of The International Business Chamber of Commerce and board member of the Asian Indian Chamber of Commerce. Several of the hourly programs will feature service-oriented topics deserving of more time on NJN – one example is a helpful series about the job market and building careers in a difficult economy. Discussions with other hosts to identify more topics and partners are underway. By combining radio’s immediacy with the internet’s interactivity, NJN hopes to improve its understanding of the community’s wants and needs, and involve listeners in the process of reinventing local radio.
- Think You Know Jersey? is a new prime time television and anytime/anywhere internet series about the story of New Jersey. Developed in association with the well-known historian Dr. Marc Mappen, the co-editor of the award-winning Encyclopedia of New Jersey and the author of Jerseyanna: The Underside of New Jersey History and There’s More to New Jersey Than the Sopranos. The game show provides a lighthearted format for the study of history and geography – encouraging residents to learn more about our extraordinary state. A web-based game and a regular radio feature are also in development; in time, a school edition will be developed as well.
- NJ Family will explore multigenerational, multiethnic New Jersey families, illustrating the rich ethnic heritage of New Jersey, celebrating the long-standing traditions of family and community, and helping us all to better understand changing communities. Each multiplatform episode will feature one multigenerational, multiethnic family with New Jersey roots: beginning with the immigrant grandparents or parents, ending with the new generation that may or may not retain its ethnic roots and/or its New Jersey roots. A team of social scientists will provide connecting material between the segments, explaining the typical patterns of people associated with each ethnicity and each generation. Viewers will be encouraged to tell their own family stories on the project's website – allowing NJ Family to become much more than a television series. The project’s goal is a multiethnic quilt, a highly interactive user-generated report on New Jersey's widespread diversity. Working with public television stations in other cities, we hope to develop family connections across the nation.
Future development projects for late 2010 and early 2011 include:
- A weekend news program that wraps up the week’s events and top stories;
- NJ Wet that immerses itself in an exploration of New Jersey’s waterways and the residents’ relationship in work and play with the rivers, streams, lakes and the ocean on our peninsula;
- Get Out!, an up-close look at how people in New Jersey connect with the outdoors – hiking, mountain biking, camping, vacationing, photographing, geocaching, orienteering, kayaking or observing the natural world in our parks and open spaces; and
- Square Thinking, featuring a college professor who poses a complex public policy question to a dozen very smart, deeply experienced experts. This dramatic reinvention of a conventional talk show will focus on case studies and real world problems that New Jersey must solve. Issues will include education reform; broadband access for all; affordable housing; rebuilding New Jersey’s economy; pensions; sustainable urban life; obesity and diabetes; and other tough issues.
“Some projects will result in future series on NJN television, radio, and internet services. Some may be placed on the back burner. That’s the creative process,” Blumenthal explains.
To receive periodic development updates, please email futureupdate@njn.org. To play a more active role by joining NJN’s feedback panel for these and other projects, send email to futurepanel@njn.org.
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