For over 10 years, Matt Skoufalos has been reporting Camden County news on his website, njpen.com. As an independent journalist – with the credentials and experience to back that description – he focuses his coverage on nine towns surrounding the city of Camden, writing stories about local issues, events and people.
Subscribers to the website read stories about their neighborhood that often aren’t covered by regional outlets. And sometimes, Skoufalos will get to a fire or crime scene and report the story first. He sees his work as one neighbor informing another about things that matter to them both.
We spoke with Skoufalos about his work.
Q: How is your reporting different?
We’re awash in information that isn’t always news. That’s why journalism matters. A trained, professional journalist separates themselves from the things they write about so their readers can get the cleanest possible information from their reporting.
I have a bachelor’s degree in journalism (TCNJ ’01) and 25-plus years as a published writer. I have been educated in the philosophies and practices that underpin my work, just like any other professional.
Q: Why do you think your formula has been successful?
As soon as the business makes enough money to support someone else, I will be happy to hire them!
Being lean enables NJ Pen to do what it can do best. No management structure influences my newsgathering. No one tells me I need to write a certain way to curry favor with advertisers or generate pageviews.
What works is that I live in my coverage area, and I keep my focus narrowed to what happens here with the perspective of a neighbor.
Q: How do you ensure accuracy?
There’s an old newsroom joke that goes, “If your mother says she loves you, check with a second source.” This is a reminder not to uncritically accept things people tell you. We must check our own biases first.
When I’m reporting on something, I consider as many relevant perspectives as I can access. If several sources aren’t available, I’ll do extra legwork to provide context through research. “How often does this kind of thing happen? When’s the last time it did? Who was affected?”
It’s also really important to acknowledge errors. Mistakes happen, and as frustrating as they are, it’s worse to make the same one twice. Readers will trust your work when you strive for accuracy and context as much as speed.
Q: How do you decide what you’ll cover?
Every day is different, but parts of it are the same. I filter and process a lot of information — social media chatter, e-mails, calls, texts. The unseen aspect of the job takes as much time as writing and reporting does. A news story can be determined by its novelty, impact and significance to the public. Judgment plays a big part of that.
When I’m writing, I seek an environment that supports my mindset at the time. I spend hours at the table in my home and in my favorite coffee shops. I also circulate throughout the communities I cover to learn what’s happening day to day. Those are the people who call me when things happen.
Q: What are your future plans for NJ Pen?
I’d like to continue doing this work in service to my readers. In the media landscape of today, the best way I know to survive is by owning my work and doing my job with integrity.
I don’t have to compete with anyone else, and I’m not trying to be anyone else. As long as I can deliver for my subscribers, I’ll keep it going. Nothing else is guaranteed.
Q: How do you find breaking news?
A journalist is only as good as his sources. I have worked for the past 11 years to be useful to my community. When things happen, people tell me because I often can get details about what they want to know.
A lot of breaking news reporting comes from being in the neighborhood. I’ll see something on social media, or a neighbor will call, or I might encounter first responders on the road. Once, I was with a friend at a restaurant and a caravan of emergency vehicles rolled by the window.
Honing an inquisitive instinct and staying curious is a big part of the job, right along with being interested in people and compassionate to their needs. I like to say that if I’m doing my job well, people want to tell me things, and I want to help them learn what I discover.
Q: What feedback do you get?
My subscribers’ feedback is the most important to me, and it’s usually very affirming. But in local media I’m accessible to people who direct their anger with mass media at me over things I have nothing to do with.
I will never be a cable station or a local TV network. I’m not working for anybody but the people where I live, and I’m giving everything I can to help the community stay connected by information, not scandalized into anxiety.
NJ Pen is a subscription service because it’s the cleanest way to produce journalism without special-interest interference. A small group of people pay a few dollars a month to keep me working around the clock on their behalf, and that’s enough to make the whole thing viable.
Q: Is there a story that received a lot of attention?
In February, we broke a story about an immigration raid at Jersey Kebab, a Haddon Township restaurant operated by a Turkish couple from Cherry Hill. ICE arrested them on an administrative charge, and I interviewed their son about it.
By the end of the week, I’d written two follow-ups, and the family’s case had spread across the country as a real-life example of accelerated immigration enforcement.
I knew theirs was an important story in our community. I didn’t know it would resound with the larger, national audience it found. That attention helped the family fundraise to stay afloat when their business was shut down, and it showed the backbone of community in South Jersey.
