Janice Rombeck | San Jose, Calif. | (408) 993-9185 | E-mail | Twitter | Website
NeighborWebSJ is a local online news site that grew out of a need for residents of San Jose, Calif., to connect with one another and City Hall and promote civic engagement. NWSJ covers local and community news with a focus on the diversity of its residents and their efforts to make their neighborhoods cleaner, safer and engaged. NWSJ is edited and published by Janice Rombeck, a former San Jose Mercury News editor and reporter.
Project Updates
- NeighborWebSJ Maps Homicides, Darkened Street Lights (February, 2014) - Damian Radcliffe writes about how hyperlocal sites are putting data into local context: For instance, J-Lab New Voices grantee NeighborWebSJ has used maps to report on the ‘Streetlight Shutoff Program’: a cost-saving initiative to permanently switch off certain streetlights. Although it saved the city $77,000 a year, many residents and businesses argued the scheme increased […]
- Covering Communities that Don’t Make Headlines (June, 2012) - Janice Rombeck Editor/Publisher How do online community news publishers measure success? Usually by the numbers. NeighborWebSJ, which covers San Jose, Calif., averages about 2,000 visitors with 6,000 page views a month. The readers stay more than two minutes (way above industry standards), and 40 percent of the 800 e-blast recipients open the online newsletter (also […]
- NeighborWebSJ Sees Growth in 2011 (December, 2011) - NeighborWebSJ ends 2011 hopeful that connections made in the past six months will prove to pay off in collaborations to generate more traffic, revenue and content in the coming year. Featured Content in 2011 Stories and photos posted during the last two quarters of 2011 embodied NWSJ’s mission of providing unique content focused on community […]
- Partnerships, Volunteers Boost NeighborWebSJ News Coverage (May, 2011) - Janice Rombeck, editor and publisher of NeighborWebSJ, is firing on all cylinders. Under her guidance, the site continues to form partnerships, add to its ranks of volunteers, and break news about San Jose. Extending Outreach The site, which initially focused on blighted and low-income areas defined by the City of San Jose’s Strong Neighborhood Initiative, […]
- NeighborWebSJ Gets a Facelift (October, 2010) - After the city of San Jose, Calif., launched its $100 million Strong Neighborhoods Initiative in 2002, the local residents began to see a need for an online forum to connect neighborhoods. The idea eventually evolved into NeighborWebSJ, which was launched as a bulletin board in August 2009. Janice Rombeck, a self-proclaimed “do-it-yourself media entrepreneur” and […]
