(BELMAR, NJ) — On April 23, 2024, New Jersey Stage celebrated its tenth anniversary covering the arts as a business. The independent site has published over 30,000 articles to date with no signs of slowing down, and continues its mission of providing affordable advertising for the arts.
The anniversary celebration started a week earlier when Gary Wien, publisher of New Jersey Stage, was honored with an Award of Excellence by the New Jersey Theatre Alliance. He was nominated by Pushcart Players, the award-winning professional touring theater company that specializes in arts education for children.
“It was nice to see our hard work recognized by the theatre community,” said Wien who maintains the website with the help of several volunteer writers and photographers.
The origins of New Jersey Stage go back to 2003. That was the year Wien’s book, Beyond the Palace, was released. It contained interviews with over 40 artists in the Asbury Park music scene from the 1960s to those emerging in the early 2000s. The book led to a monthly print publication called Upstage Magazine which covered the arts throughout the state. Initially distributed throughout Central New Jersey, it eventually reached much of the state during its five year run.
“When Upstage stopped publishing, arts organizations kept sending us their press releases and musicians kept sending their CDs,” explained Wien. “I searched around the Internet and realized there weren’t many places covering them. I had already moved on to publishing in a different industry but wanted to help so I launched NewJerseyStage.com as a hobby.”
For several years, Wien ran press releases, original stories, and reviews on the website. Sometime around 2011, he noticed that the site was getting large audience numbers. He started to think about putting out a magazine again but wanted to do something new. Digital magazines were still in their infancy, but the idea intrigued him - an interactive magazine about the arts that could include actual music videos, film trailers, and art galleries… could it work?
It took a few years, but he eventually found software that allowed him to create the type of publication he envisioned. He decided to take the chance and made New Jersey Stage an official business in April 2014. The first issue of the digital magazine was released that July with the help of a few writers from New Jersey (Rosemary Conte, Dw Dunphy), a musician/artist (Gene Pompilio IV), and a film critic from Dublin, Ireland (Eric Hillis).
About ten months after launching the magazine, plans were forced to change when Wien was diagnosed with Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis - a disease with no cure.
“I had lived with a strange neurological condition for several years, but they couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me,” recalled Wien. “And then one day, everything changed. Suddenly, walking became a struggle. I started seeing a different neurologist and had more advanced MRIs done. By then, the damage was pretty apparent. It was clearly Multiple Sclerosis and it was in a very aggressive stage. Thankfully, my neurologist got me on a strong drug very quickly. I began getting an infusion of the drug every month in the cancer center at Monmouth Medical Hospital.”
Wien kept writing and maintaining the site each day and the treatments helped stabilize the M.S. It became clear that working each day was a good way to fight the progression. As the site continued to grow, more and more writers came on board each year, volunteering their services.
The digital magazine on NewJerseyStage.com would continue for 75 issues - including seven after the Covid-19 pandemic brought the arts to a close. Since the magazine depended on performing arts centers for advertising and they had nothing to promote, the decision was made to stop producing the magazine and focus on the website itself.
Over the years, writers like Danny Coleman, Spotlight Central, Bob Makin, and Lazlo (of BlowupRadio.com) became integral parts of the site with weekly columns and features. New Jersey Stage worked out deals to syndicate the work of Jersey Arts, LetsGoToTheTheater.com, and New Jersey Jazz Society. Al Nigrin, Charles Paolino, Bruce Chadwick, and Adam F. Cohen are just some of the writers who are regular contributors. Photographers like John Posada, Julie Hoffman, and Chris Paul regularly contribute content as well.
“I am extremely grateful to everyone who has contributed to New Jersey Stage,” said Wien. “They all are volunteers who contribute because they love the arts. I think that’s what makes the site so special. Of course, there’s one person who has done more than anyone else and that’s my wife Sherry. She not only served as the magazine’s editor (and occasionally still edits articles) but makes New Jersey Stage possible. From taking me to the infusion center and doctor visits to providing the economic stability and moral support, there is no New Jersey Stage without her. She knows this gives me a sense of purpose and I am forever grateful to do for that.”
Dr. Sherry Wien and Gary Wien at the 2024 New Jersey Theatre Alliance Curtain Call
New Jersey Stage still offers banner advertising from $50 per month for a single banner ad (sizes include 300x250, 300x600, 970x250, or 600x776) and a package of all four sizes for $100 per month. Every banner ad includes event pages for each performance that month. Event pages are also available for just $10.
The website routinely has over 500,000 unique visitors per year. Websites with similar numbers (or even much less) often charge two to four times as much for advertising, but that goes against the mission of New Jersey Stage.
“Advertising does not have to be expensive to be effective,” added Wien. “That has been our motto since day one. Many arts organizations have very tight marketing budgets. New Jersey Stage exists so they can promote their shows and events in front of a local audience who is interested in the arts. We don’t have a sales team, we just focus on covering the arts.”
New Jersey Stage sees itself as more of a partner to the arts than a media outlet. We want every show to succeed. Covering the arts is like paying it forward. With that said, we’d like to continue the theme by offering one free ad package per month for the rest of 2024 as part of our social media contest. Each month, we will randomly select one business or artist who has SHARED a post of ours on any of our social media pages (Facebook, Twitter, Threads, or Instagram). The winner for April is the Washington Borough Business Improvement District!
Here’s to the next ten years!
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