(BELMAR, NJ) — In baseball, 3,000 hits is a particularly amazing milestone, often signally a Hall of Fame worthy career. For New Jersey Stage, 3,000 is the goal for articles published each year. On December 6, the website reached that goal for the first time and is on pace to finish the year with an average of just under 9 art-related articles per day.
“This is an important milestone for us,” said Gary Wien, publisher of New Jersey Stage. “Our goal this year was to hit 3,000 articles and we accomplished that with three weeks to spare!”
The numbers of articles published has been steadily increasing each year for New Jersey Stage. In 2015, the website published 2,116 articles. In 2016, the number increased to 2,607. This year saw the addition of “Makin Waves” - the long-time column by popular New Jersey music writer Bob Makin and "Jeff Crespi Rocks The Shore" by photographer Jeff Crespi added to a mix which already included regular pieces by Gary Wien, Danny Coleman, Eric Hillis, Rosemary Conte, Soundpress, and Spotlight Central.
New Jersey Stage is an independent media outlet covering arts & entertainment throughout the Garden State. It was created to help fill the void by daily newspapers who have been reducing or eliminating their arts coverage over the past decade. New Jersey Stage publishes a monthly digital magazine and runs a daily news site for arts and entertainment.
“We have spent the last few years, building relationships with key arts organizations throughout the state,” said Wien. “Our goal is to be considered a partner of the arts rather than just a publisher. While we have been cultivating these relationships, our audience has been growing each month. Our website has had more than 265,000 unique visitors in 2017 — a number that is very good for a statewide arts website.”
New Jersey Stage covers all forms of art including art, comedy, dance, film, literature, music, and theatre. In addition to original articles and interviews, the website regularly runs press releases from arts organizations. Press releases may be sent to: info@newjerseystage.com
The website also ran over 5,000 event listings in 2017. Event listings are free and may be added directly by individuals at NewJerseyStage.com. Users essentially get a free web page for each event, providing them with the ability to give full event information, links, and even photos and videos with their listing. Event listings can easily be shared across social media as well.
With its large audience, New Jersey Stage is an excellent place to reach fans of arts and entertainment. Advertising is priced for the budgets of art organizations with ads just $50 to $100 for a complete month’s worth of promotion. Unlike many websites that utilize third party advertising services, New Jersey Stagehandles all of its advertising in-house. Ads run on Google or Facebook do not appear on the website.
“We know many arts organizations do not have large advertising budgets,” explained Wien. “That is why our advertising is priced at levels even the smallest organization can afford. Nobody else lets you reach as many people from your local area to throughout the state like New Jersey Stage can at the prices we have. It’s the best deal around.”
New Jersey Stage is currently seeking writers to cover shows or write columns from around the state. These are unpaid positions, but will include free tickets to shows and bylines to help build up a writer’s resume. Those interested in learning more should email info@newjerseystage.com
Follow New Jersey Stage on social media on Facebook and Twitter @newjerseystage
