Online Technology March 2000
NJOnline just can't sit still
Staff Report
If the level of interactive features in online publications were to be measured like students' ability to sit still in class, New Jersey Online (www.njo.com) would need to be on Ritalin.
For those unfamiliar with hyperactivity and for the sake of this story we'll call it hyper-interactivity. While fidgety students are regarded as a problem, a subdued online publication would be called a bore.
That is definitely not the problem for njo.com, which comes across as so hyper-interactive that it isn't easy to sit still in front of the computer screen.
Ooh look ... a discussion forum on The Sopranos, a modern-mobster television saga filmed in the Garden State, or here ... a chat room devoted to small business owners and one for singles, or what about this? An auction site for everything from homes in Long Beach to vintage Ford Mustangs to treadmills.
Looking to find out how your New Jersey neighborhood fares in the FBI's Uniform Crime Report? Or are you itching to create your own online club to discuss line-dancing with like-minded souls?
If you live in New Jersey and want to feel the community spirit, njo.com is the place to go. With more than 40 forums covering everything from business to cockroaches, the four-and-a-half-year-old Web site fosters communal interaction on just about everything serious or quirky.
"One feature that sets NJO apart from its peers in newspaper-affiliated Web sites is our online comunity," said njo.com's editor, Dean Betz. "We have a high level of participation in our forums and chats, ranging in topics like high school wrestling to Bruce Springsteen, to county-by-county local discussions."'
"The Boss" (a native of New Jersey) indeed occupies a very special place at njo.com. The Bruce Springsteen Shrine includes Real Audio Bruce Radio, as well as entertainment news on the state's favorite songwriter and of course chat rooms for fans and foes. Aside from Bruce Radio, njo.com also streams five more New Jersey radio stations and is planning to add a sixth one in the next several weeks, Betz said.
To complement the audio offerings of the site, njo.com also features live cam views of the New York City Skyline, the Jersey Shore and a famous diner in Jersey City -- some of which have been recognized and featured in Rolling Stone, Newsday, VH1 Online, Yahoo, Life and Details.
In addition to playful interactive features, njo.com also offers a variety of interesting services that are fun and useful.
Take for example the Web site's free newsletter service, which allows subscribers to tailor-make their own newspaper according to their specific interests and have it e-mailed to them.
Or the Web site's NJBid auction link, which features a lively marketplace of buyers and sellers of everything from Metabolife to a red, corduroy couch.
Business owners with meek traffic to their Web sites should check into njo.com's service called "Chicklets." Click on "Chicklets" and add searchable databases featuring movies, weather, regional maps, and a state-wide restaurant guide, to your Web site.
With that kind of service-mindedness, it comes as no surprise that njo.com has been recognized by the Newspaper Association of America with the 1996 Digital Edge Award for best Online Newspaper, has been featured as the "Pick of the Week" of the Chicago Sun Times and been mentioned as the "Editor's Choice" by LookSmart magazine.
With so much to do, who's got time for the traditional fare of news and sports coverage? Despite its full platter of interactive services, njo.com's 25 full-time employees manage to deliver an up-to-date package of sports and news around the clock.
As the online affiliate of The Newark Star-Ledger, The Times of Trenton, The Jersey Journal of Jersey City -- all owned by Advanced Publications -- njo.com has no shortage of news and sports coverage of local and regional scope for New Jersey.
News coverage and sports updates are supplied by three newspaper affiliates as well as the Associated PressĒ wire services and ESPN's SportsTicker sports information service.
According to Betz, the online news and sports content is updated four times a day and news from AP and SportsTicker are added continuously.
"We have a depth of news and information on high school sports in New Jersey that is matched by no regional competitors, and few other sites nationally," he said, adding that njo.com attracts a passionate bunch of fans of the metro New York area's professional teams.
Sports nut or not, njo.com, according to Betz, counts more than 5 million visitors and 25 million page views per month. Of its users, demographic research shows as many as 40 percent have bachelors degrees and 17 percent have graduate degrees. Age groups include a good showing for those between 25 and 54 with less participation from the 18- to 24-year-old and 55 and older groups. Interestingly enough, njo.com's research shows that two thirds of all visitors are men and only one-third are women.
Feedback from readers in Betz's words "is priceless" and tirelessly pursued.
"We often get the best ideas for how to develop the site from e-mail from the people who depend on NJO," Betz said. "We include e-mail feedback links on every page on the site, and take the messages we receive very seriously."
www.njo.com
New Jersey Online
Launched: Fall 1995
Employees: 25
Publishing System: Homegrown
Advertising System: Real Media
Community System: Homegrown
Search Engine: Developing their own
Other systems: Pantheon,
to retrieve news from its affiliates
System Software Information:
"Overall, our site design is biased to be functional," Betz said of the site's software systems make-up. "We've developed our own DHTML navigation tool that sits on the left side of every page and allows users to quickly navigate from any point in the site to any other point."
Homegrown is the preferred brand for njo.com, Betz said, because it offers more flexibility than off-the-shelf software.
"If something isn't working right, we are able to look at the code and find the source of the trouble," he added.
The site runs on Unix computers, mostly Sun Solaris and Intel-based versions, using Linux. For Web server software, njo.com uses a "highly-tweaked" version of Apache, according to Betz.
"We have written a module for Apache called Server-Side Frames that lets us build programming, some intelligence and database connections in our pages."
For hosting and development of community publishing, calendars and advertising and marketing tools, njo.com also uses mostly homegrown software or third-party products written to the site's specifications.
"Frankly, we think we can do a better job than what's available on the market," Betz said.
The site won an Eppy award in 1999 for its community site, which NJO also developed.