2022 was a very good year for New Jersey Stage.  We finished the year with 700,000 unique visitors; a new high for us as we move towards the million mark. That number is important because we are a regional website covering the arts. There are many websites covering the arts on a national and international level, but only a few for New Jersey.  We put a spotlight on the Garden State with arguably the best audience in the area.

Our audience is nearly split between men (49.8%) and women (50.2%).  We have solid numbers for every demographic, including 29% for 18-34; 40% for 35-54; and 31% for 55+.  As one would expect from a regional website, the majority of our audience comes from New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania users.

NJ Stage also broke its record for stories in a single year with just under 4,000 in total - including 621 features and 1,900 event previews. The breakdown of stories includes 1352 for music; 789 for theatre; 310 for art; 234 for film; 123 for dance; and 113 for comedy.  We also ran 620 community stories, which generally involved multiple art forms.

As the new year begins, New Jersey Stage will once again reach out to arts organizations throughout the state.  Our goal is to make sure we are on every press release list.  If your arts organization is holding events, presenting shows, or making news - we want to know about it.  NJ Stage runs as many press releases each day as we can and there's never a charge to do so.  

If you send out press releases, please make sure [email protected] is on your media list.

"New Jersey Stage would like to thank all of the writers and photographers who contributed to the website in 2022," said Gary Wien, publisher. "I would especially like to thank our weekly columnists Bob Makin, Lazlo, and Danny Coleman; as well as Spotlight Central and John Posada who both contributed lots of content throughout the year.  All of our writers are volunteers and we appreciate every piece they do."

The list of writers and photographers includes Justin Almodovar, Claire Apel, Amit Bachani, Charles Blatcher, III, Izzy Bonvini, Bruce Chadwick, Adam F. Cohen, Danny Coleman, James Dalton, James DeSalvo, Alexia Fraser, Schaen Fox, Jack Greenberg, Julie Hoffman, Sanford Josephson, Lazlo, Capri Leone, Bob Makin, Joe Makoviecki, Constance McCart, Al Nigrin, Karen Nowosad, Yazmin Omana, Chris Paul, Charles Paolino, Prajesh Patel, Jennifer Petrics, Flisadem Pointer, John Posada, Emily Ranieri, Rebecca Raush, Tylie Shider, Loren Simon, Jennifer Stanilla, Jay Sweet, Ashley Terer, Vanessa Tirok, Hannah Vliet, Gary Wien, and the great husband/wife duo at Spotlight Central.

Thanks to a partnership with Jersey Arts, we syndicated articles and podcasts in 2022 from Rachel Alban, Christopher Benincasa, Carolyn M. Brown, Ilene Dube, Laurie Granieri, Kenneth Miles, Jesse North & Dave Tavani, Maddie Orton, Gina Marie Rodriguez, Shen Shellenberger, and Gary Wien.

Our ten most popular stories for 2022 were:

1) Haunt O'Ween NJ to take place at Bell Works

2) Fun City Adventure Park to Become Newest Anchor at Union Lake Crossing Shopping Center in Millville

3) A Philly Special Christmas releases "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)"

4) Paper Mill Playhouse Announces 2022-2023 Season

5) Plays-in-the-Park returns for their 60th season to Middlesex County this summer with three popular Broadway musicals

6) Lisa Marie Is One Funny Wife & Mom

7) 7th Annual Roselle House Music Festival

8) Newark to Host Annual Latin Festival on August 21st

9) Mother's Day Good Music Festival at Prudential Center features The Isley Brothers, Keith Sweat, Monica, and SWV

10) M. Night Shyamalan Returned to South Jersey to Film "Knock at the Cabin" 

Here's to cracking the one million unique visitor mark in 2023!