We’ve upgraded a number of features for an improved user experience.

By Matt Skoufalos | September 13, 2024

For the past 10 years, we’ve been working to build a local community news source that delivers an informed perspective on the events of the day in suburban Camden County, New Jersey.

As we head into our second decade of operation, we are proud to stand behind the work that NJ Pen has delivered, and optimistic about what we will achieve going forward.

This week, we put the finishing touches on a number of upgrades to NJPen.com, the culmination of a months-long effort to revive the site we launched back in 2004.

These fixes were made possible by a sustainability grant from the New Jersey Civic Info Consortium that included technical coaching, web development services, and an array of best practices to strengthen a platform from which we hope to build for the next decade.

This work has been going on behind the scenes of our regular operations since February, and we’re pleased to finally be able to debut the changes for you today.

What’s new?


Newsletter
In June, we re-launched our free, weekly newsletter, which means the latest local news will hit your inbox regularly. (If you’re not signed up, you can do that here.) 

Navigability
In general, we hope the site will flow better for readers on mobile and desktop devices. Our article categories flow across the top banner of the desktop page, and our mobile drop-down menu functions more cleanly than it had in the past.

Footer 
Key information that readers seek regularly is now in an easy-to-locate column format at the bottom of the page. If you’re looking for a story by topic, want to find us on social channels, or just need to get in touch, the new layout will make it easier to find the details you might need.

Better account management
NJ Pen is powered by reader subscriptions, and the most challenging part of our operation has been getting the account management software right.

In 10 years, we’ve been bounced around by providers that haven’t supported our subscribers consistently, failed to secure our content, and were unresponsive when we needed help. We needed to stabilize around a software suite that would take better care of our customers and allow us to focus on producing a high-quality news product.

We migrated our subscription account management software to Memberful, a service that is focused on customer experience. We believe Memberful will help us build a reliable platform to support the people who support our work, and to continue growing so that we can offer additional benefits in the future.

Expanded advertiser support
We’re often fond of saying, “You can’t buy our coverage, but you can buy an ad.” Our local small business clients will now have a range of sizes and page placements from which to choose. We also revamped our media kit, so if you’d like to connect with our audience, have a look at what we can offer.

Standardized subscription pricing
The switch to Memberful also allows us to standardize our subscription pricing for all readers.

When we switched to a paid subscription model in 2019, we created two plans: a $5/month, limited-access tier for new readers, and our $9/month unlimited plan. 

Memberful does not allow us to offer a limited-access subscription, so we are retiring the $5/month plan and unlocking full access for all our readers at the same price point.

This change puts all our readers at the same price point, with unlimited access to our work, from the latest breaking news to a decade’s worth of archived reporting on the people, places, and issues that matter most to you.

Moreover, we can now offer flexible subscriptions on an annual ($107), quarterly ($27), or monthly ($9) basis.

What’s next?

We are hopeful that these improvements will put us on solid footing to continue to grow and deliver the best coverage possible for the communities we serve. With your continued support, we can continue to keep a watchful eye on the things that matter most in the neighborhood.

We would not have made this milestone decade without the readers who believe in the work that we do, and we value the trust they have placed in our efforts above all else.

We know that subscription-powered journalism is the cleanest way to deliver information that is fact-based, free of corporate demands, and doesn’t chase clicks or pageview quotas. That’s how we’ve been able to keep the interests of the community central to our work. It’s a model that we believe our readers value over other alternatives.

Professional, independent journalism is only possible because readers like you make it possible. We cannot do this work without you. But with your backing, we can continue to deliver you an accountable perspective on the events of the day.

We hope you’ll take these next steps with us as we continue to grow and work to deliver the best work we can produce.

Thank you for making it all possible.