In 2008, in the face of a proposed 35 percent cut in funding, NJN officials asked the state legislature for permission to become an independent nonprofit entity. Under this proposal, the state network would have likely been transferred to its nonprofit fundraising arm, the NJN Foundation. Two consultants looking into fundraising options speculated that breaking off from the state would have triggered an avalanche of private funding. After assuming the office of
New Jersey Governor in 2010,
Chris Christie voiced his support for transforming NJN into a not-for-profit organization in his March 2010 budget speech. Christie believed the state taxpayers should not have to support a TV and radio network which many never watched or listened to, a stand in keeping with the growing
Republican interest at the time in
populism. On October 15, 2010, a bipartisan legislative task force called for a "dramatic reconfiguration" of the state network, but not full privatization. Christie nonetheless moved forward with plans to remove state funding. On November 17, NJN handed termination notices to 130 employees, leading to speculation that the state network would shut down on January 1, 2011, when funding from the state would end. On December 17, 2010, Governor Christie signed legislation to transfer the state network to independent funding. The legislation also suspended the layoffs.
Endgame On June 6, 2011, the split of NJN's radio and television operations was announced by Gov. Christie. They were as follows: •
Television: WNET assumed control of NJN's television stations for what was, initially, a five-year term under a new
nonprofit entity called
Public Media NJ. The television network was renamed
NJTV, and promised to feature increased coverage of news and issues pertinent to New Jersey, as well as programming from the WNET and PBS libraries. Caucus Educational Corporation, which produces
Caucus: New Jersey, serves as a producing partner with NJTV for New Jersey-focused public affairs programming. The agreement did not include transfer of the station licenses, which were retained by the New Jersey Public Broadcasting Authority; the contracts are instead tantamount to
local management agreements in commercial broadcasting which nominally do not require approval from the FCC. Ironically, NJN was created in part due to concerns that WNET and WHYY-TV were not adequately serving the New Jersey portions of their service area. •
Radio: NJN's radio network was divided in a pair of multi-station sales, with New York Public Radio (owners of
WNYC-AM-FM in New York City and Newark-licensed
WQXR-FM) acquiring four stations and
WHYY-FM in Philadelphia obtaining the other five. New York Public Radio used its stations to start a new New Jersey-oriented network,
New Jersey Public Radio, while WHYY turned its new acquisitions into repeaters of WHYY-FM. These sales were approved by the FCC on August 29, 2011. On June 23, 2011, the New Jersey State Assembly voted, 45 to 30, in favor of rejecting the WNET/Caucus proposal for transfer of control of the NJN television stations. The state Senate, however, passed the resolution on June 27 by a 20 to 19 margin, allowing the deal to go into effect as scheduled on July 1. All 130 NJN employees, who had been New Jersey state
civil servants, either retired, were reassigned to other state agencies, or were terminated as a result of the system's closure. The last scheduled program aired on NJN television was
Theatre Talk, which was followed by a previously-aired news report and a pre-taped farewell message by Janice Selinger, NJN's acting executive director. NJN's website,
www.njn.net, was archived and remained active for about a year after the shutdown; it redirected to the NJTV webpage,
www.njtvonline.org for some time afterward. However, as of September 2014, it no longer redirected to that website, as the domain name was sold. Some of NJN's in-house public affairs programs, such as
Due Process,
On the Record and
Reporters Roundtable, were picked up by, and continue to air on, its successor, NJTV. ==Television==