NJ.COM

Shockingly, I've actually been on NJ.com before. A friend of mine likes to tell me about different websites and cool stuff on the web, and this is one of those places she told me to check out, probably for a job or something!

Anyway, I liked this site right off the bat. I felt that it had a lot to offer, but not so much that I was overwhelmed like many of the other sites reviewed for this class. It offered the standard categories: news, entertainment, sports, a living section, cams & radio, forums, and even local new. Pretty standard, right. Well, one thing this site offered, unlike most others, was that it had a "marketplace" a place were people can search classified adds from newspapers like The Star Ledger, The Reporter, Hunterdon County Democrat, The Warren Reporter, The Jersey Journal, The Times, Today's Sunbeam, and many more papers found within New Jersey. I liked this feature a lot because, honestly who likes to and has time to sit a read the boring classified section of their newspaper. At least on NJ.com, you could simply look online where the color isn't only just black and white, it makes it easier for the reader, and it is more convenient. Let's face it we live in a very fast pace world, who doesn't want fast paced news? Or classifieds for that matter?

One think that I didn't like about the site was that it doesn't offer the 'news site' feel like CNN.com or MSNBC.com did. It had news, important news too, but I think, for the me the site seemed lively, and not so newsy. Another thing that I didn't like was the fact, whenever you clicked on let's say "local" or "cams and radio" or "forum" you were directed a page asking for your zip code, the year of your birth, and if you were male or female. What does that matter to a news site? Another thing that lent itself to seeming unlike most newsy sites.

I noticed right away that there was a whole section dedicated to multimedia, Cams and Radio. In this section you find links to local New Jersey radio stations, like Seton Hall's WSOU. You could also listen to many of the radio stations listed right through the NJ.com site. Yet again, making it easier for the person with little to no free time on his/her hands. Also, it had a local cam of three things that were currently happening at Point Pleasant Beach. I did check it out, however, my computer is terribly slow, and my patience tends to run lower than normal on mornings! Just another example of wanting everything fast paced!

As far as interactivity, I felt that this site was pretty much the same as other sites reviewed. Of course there were places to e-mail different people at NJ.com, and the forums, which offered a wide variety of topics to talk about like New Jersey in Iraq or a forum on Springsteen and the Sopranos, or about certain sports teams like the Nets. But mostly, all topics focused around New Jersey.

A lot of the media outlets that contribute to NJ.com I would say would have to be the many New Jersey Newspapers, some of which are listed about (The Star Ledger, The Times, Hunterdon Country Democrat, Bridgeton News, Today's Sunbeam, The Reporter, Independent Press, The Express Times, Gloucuster County Times, The Warren Reporter, and el nuevo) With that, I think a lot of ways this site brings in money is through the use of those media outlets. For example, a person can subscribe to any one of these papers through NJ.com. You can't tell me that NJ.com does not get a percentage of that money? Of course they do, after all in many ways they are advertising for these papers. Other ways, I suppose, the site makes money is by advertisements in general, because there seem to be an awful lot of them.

I could definitely see this site being useful and impacting the users because it does offer so much. High school students can search for nearby colleges to apply to, college students can begin to job hunt, and adults can still job hunt (if in the market for a new job), find local news about what's happening in their part of Jersey, and still use the same facilities as high school and college students. To say the least, the site accommodates everyone who could possibly visit.