How NJBiz has grown its online readers as well as its print subscribers

Tom Bergeron is editor of NJBiz, a print and online business publication serving New Jersey.

Since his arrival in 2013, he has transformed of NJBiz into a real-time, seven-day-a-week multimedia news portal that emphasizes breaking news and a stream of strong, steady content. During that time, unique users are up over 200 percent while page views are up just under 200 percent. Paid subscriptions have jumped more than 25 percent.

Before joining NJBiz, Bergeron was senior director of business development for iHigh.com, the nation’s top live-streaming provider, into the crowded New Jersey/New York high school market. He also spent three years as an assistant managing editor at Yahoo, where he helped transform RivalsHigh, Yahoo’s high school sports site, into the industry leader by refocusing its editorial content and reorganizing its distribution to greatly increase its unique visitors.

Bergeron’s career began in newspapers. He spent 2005 to 2009 as the executive sports editor of The Star-Ledger in Newark, New Jersey, and he was an assistant sports editor at the Kansas City Star from 2003 to 2005. Before that, he spent five years as The Star-Ledger’s deputy sports editor.

NJBiz produces a weekly print edition with a circulation of more than 15,000 copies. The publication, founded in 1987 and based in the Somerset section of Franklin Township, is owned by Journal Multimedia, a publishing and events company based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Bergeron spoke by email with Talking Biz News about NJBiz. What follows is an edited transcript.

How did you make the transition from sports to business?

I loved my time in sports and worked and learned from some of the giants in the industry (Kevin Whitmer, Chris D’Amico, Kevin Manahan, Steve Politi, Mike Fannin, Jason Whitlock, Wright Thompson and Gerry Ahern to name a few) but I knew I wanted to do something more. I looked into TV and even left the business for a year to do business development. But I love journalism and missed it dearly.

People always ask me the difference between sports and business. It tell them it’s not as different as you would think: The competition is just as fierce and the personalities just as interesting. And there are just as many pr folks trying to control “the message.” They just have a different scoreboard.

NJBiz covers business news statewide. How do you do that?

New Jersey is a unique state. It is very small and densely populated, so what goes on in one area can easily impact the rest of the state. That being said, it’s unusual in that there really isn’t a state center (either a city or a capital area that everything is built around). We are constantly amazed at how major business players don’t know what’s going on just one county away – are unaware of billion-dollar corporations that are close to them.

These gives us the unique challenge of both reporting how turns in the business world impact everyone while, at the same time, enlightening business owners about what their neighbors are doing. That being said, our geography allows us to do bigger state-wide issues, such as why are businesses leaving, how are grants impacting everyone plus social issues such as women and millennials in the workplace – or how the workplace is changing.

How does the publication balance online vs. print?

When I arrived nearly three years ago, we were a print publication that also had a (dreadfully out-of-date) website. Now we are a 24-7 news portal with a vibrant web site that is complemented by a print edition. Our weekly paper tends to have more big-picture analysis and trends in the industry while the web site is more of the daily drive with our morning and evening news letter plus our news alerts.

We’re not reinventing the wheel here; this is the way all publications must work these days. Still, changing the mindset took time.

Who do you see as your competitors in terms of business coverage?
I’ve answered this question the same way my entire career (even before the Internet exploded). Our biggest competition is ourselves. I’ve never felt people will look at multiple content providers and pick A over B. Readers will see your content and decide whether it’s worth their time. If it is, they will come back. If they keep finding they can’t live without it, they’ll come back often. There’s no number of publications someone will look at – they will look at all that they can’t do without.

Our goal is to have content that the business community in New Jersey can’t live without. I’m not concerned about how many other places they may go as long as they have to go to ours. It’s like TV, people don’t decide they are going to watch one channel or network over the other – or traditional channels over Netflix-type programming, they will view as many outlets as are producing quality work they want to see.

Dailies seem to have given up on business coverage when they cut stock listings. Is that the case in New Jersey?

To some extent, yes, that’s true. I still love The Star-Ledger and have tremendous respect for what they are still able to do with a limited staff. Their business model has changed and they are not as interested in trying to capture the smaller business audience. That’s great for us, but only if we provide the coverage the business community is looking for. Like I said, readers won’t go to us simply because we are one of the full outlets with so much devoted to coverage. They will go to us if they feel the coverage is worth reading.

Are there areas of coverage that you’d like to improve upon?

Sure. Any editor would love to have more reporters. Our biggest sectors to cover are real estate development, health care and government, mainly because they apply to all business people. We then have a few writers assigned to cover technology, higher ed, manufacturing, food and beverage, women in business, millennials, sports and tourism and transportation/infrastructure/logistics.

In a perfect world, all of these areas would have one reporter devoted to each area. And then there’s the idea of having a person/team assigned to special projects and investigations. We are proud of some our special reports, especially because they were produced by a reporter also covering other beats.

How big are events for NJBiz?

Big and getting better. They are a way for us to not only connect with the business community but put NJBIZ at the center of it. They are huge branding and networking and story-gathering moments for us.

Have you thought of putting some of your content behind a paywall? Why or why not?

Like all publications, it’s an issue we continually discuss. One, the industry has shown, has no right or wrong answer. Each market and each publication is different.

What’s been the biggest growth area for the publication in terms of revenue in recent years?

Advertising and sponsorships always will be the leader for revenue, but we have been thrilled to see that we are increasing our paid circulation (up roughly 50 percent since I started three years ago). That lets us know we are doing it right.

In the past three years, monthly unique users are up over 200 percent while page views are up just under 200 percent. Paid subscriptions have jumped more than 25 percent. Why has that happened?

It all comes down to content. If you are providing information that readers find they can’t do without, your audience will grow. The business community is very smart and very busy. But if you give them information that will help them improve their business and their bottom line, they will make time for you. Don’t them for granted though. The product always has to be worth reading or they will stopped.