NJTV, one year later

One year after NJTV replaced the state-run NJN, "reaction to the service is decidedly mixed," reports the Star-Ledger. "Supporters applaud the station’s progress. Critics are more numerous and more blunt."

“It’s a wake, not an anniversary,” Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan (D-Middlesex) said. “Effectively, NJTV is dead. Nobody watches it.”

Fewer viewers are tuning in, the newspaper said. This spring, NJ Today averaged around 22,000 viewers total for its three nightly broadcasts — about half of the viewers who tuned into NJN news during the same period last year.

But progress should be put into context, others say. “When you look at what NJN did in the range of $22 (million) to $30 million a year and look at what this new entity has done with a budget of about $10 million, I think they have done incredible things,” said Liz Thomas, board member of Public Media New Jersey, the nonprofit corporation behind NJTV.