Goodbye, NJN - Hello, NJTV

6/28/2011 update:  The New York public broadcaster WNET is set to take over NJN on July 1, after the New Jersey Senate last night failed to pass a resolution that would have blocked the deal.

See NJN reporter Michael Arons, reporting on the NJN vote, and bidding farewell to NJN viewers.

WNET plans to rename the station NJTV, and says it will maintain New Jersey-centric programming, although staffing levels are expected to be cut from the current 150 employees to less than 20.

On Friday, the Assembly had voted to block the deal, in an effort to find a Jersey-based operator such as Montclair State University to run NJN.

6/24/2011: Another twist in the saga of the fate of NJN:  after hours of testimony yesterday on the future of NJN, the New Jersey State Assembly rejected Governor Chris Christie's plan to turn over management of the public broadcaster to WNET.  That leaves a huge cloud of uncertainty over what happens to NJN on July 1, when state funding ends and all employees have been notified of termination.

Read more on this, from the Star-Ledger, and the Daily Record

About the Author

Donna Liu

Founder, AllPrinceton

Donna Liu is a digital journalist who has lived in Princeton with her family since 2002.  She founded AllPrinceton in 2010 as an online hub for community news and information.  At Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, she built UChannel - an online archive of public affairs lectures in academia.  Before that she established and managed CNN International's Asia Production Center in Hong Kong.