NJ.com vs My Central Jersey
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
NJ.com
Stay informed with local news, sports, and weather impacting your community. Access timely and reliable reporting from journalists who live and work in your area. Covers a wide range of topics including news, politics, business, and culture.
- Local news reporting
- Sports coverage
- Weather updates
- Politics and business news
- Culture and events
- Premium content access
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Get trusted local news from across New Jersey. Breaking news, in-depth reporting, and all the stories people are talking about. Stay connected to what's happening around you with timely coverage of news, weather, sports, and more, optimized for your phone. Free to download. Get breaking news, alerts, and top stories. Subscribers receive unlimited access to in-depth reporting, exclusive content, and additional features. Subscriptions are available in-app. Our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use: http://www.advance.net/advancedigitalUserAgreementPP/
My Central Jersey
Stay informed with local news, in-depth journalism, and engaging multimedia content. Get breaking news, sports scores, and weather alerts with customizable notifications. Access a digital replica of the print edition and enjoy personalized reading options.
- In-depth local journalism
- Breaking news and alerts
- Sports coverage
- Streamlined multimedia experience
- Customizable reading options
- eNewspaper access
- Offline reading
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From critically acclaimed storytelling to powerful photography to engaging videos — the My Central Jersey app delivers the local news that matters most to your community. APP FEATURES: • Access all of our in-depth journalism, including things to do around town, sports coverage from high school to the pros, and much more. • Enjoy a streamlined, fast-loading experience that makes it easy to view the stories, photos, and videos that matter to you. • Get breaking news, sports scores, and weather alerts with real-time notifications tailored to your interests. • Customize your experience by saving your favorite stories, adjusting text size, using night mode, or reading offline. • eNewspaper: Just like our print edition but accessible on your mobile devices. And access to USA TODAY and 200+ local eNewspapers. MORE INFORMATION: • Privacy Policy: https://cm.mycentraljersey.com/privacy/ • Terms of Service: https://cm.mycentraljersey.com/terms/ • Help Center: https://help.mycentraljersey.com • Subscriptions are charged to your account at confirmation of purchase and automatically renew each month or year, unless turned off in your account settings at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period. You can manage your subscriptions and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to your Account Settings after purchase. Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when you purchase a subscription, where applicable. See "Subscription Support" in the app's Settings for more details and customer service contact information.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is monetization model: My Central Jersey at free with in-app purchases against NJ.com's subscription. My Central Jersey also leads on review sentiment (47% vs 19%). NJ.com's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and ratings volume (25K vs 357). On price, rating, update cadence and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. NJ.com sells 16 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month and My Central Jersey sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for NJ.com against 4.4 for My Central Jersey. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: NJ.com has 25K ratings behind it against 357, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 19% of NJ.com's written reviews are positive against 47% of My Central Jersey's.
NJ.com ships an update every 3 weeks, My Central Jersey monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | NJ.com | My Central Jersey |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (25K ratings) — better | 4.4 (357 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 18.7% of reviews | 47.4% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 25K — better | 357 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Monthly |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Subscription | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Best chart rank | #51 — better | #198 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 18.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 32 MB | 184 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 12+ |
| Developer | NJ.com | USA TODAY Co., Inc. |
Customer experience
NJ.com
My Central Jersey
User reviews
NJ.com
From 25K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🗞️ Informative local news coverage
- 📰 Reliable source for NJ news
- 🔍 Helpful search functionality
Room to improve
- 🔒 Excessive paywall restrictions
- 🐛 Frequent app crashes and freezes
- 💤 Slow loading times and performance issues
- 📢 Overwhelming ads and notifications
- 🗣️ Lack of user commenting features
My Central Jersey
From 357 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 📰 Good local news coverage
- 👍 Unbiased news source (per one user)
- 🗺️ Keeps users connected to hometown news
- 📰 Nice overview of local headlines
- 📰 Great for keeping up with hometown/state news
Room to improve
- 🐛 App frequently crashes or freezes
- 🐛 App is not user-friendly or intuitive
- 🐛 Difficulty finding account information
- 🐛 Ads or messages float over text
- 🐛 Poor search functionality (old news, not recent)
Bugs and requests
NJ.com
Reported bugs
4 issues- Login issues and inability to access subscriber content
- Frequent app crashes and freezes
- Navigation and search functionality problems
- Incompatibility with certain devices and OS versions
Requested features
5 requests- Bring back ability to save articles
- Improve app stability and performance
- Offer more free content access
- Restore team-specific sports browsing
- Add user commenting functionality
My Central Jersey
Reported bugs
10 issues- App cannot be opened from iPad, stuck in a loop
- App spins forever when loading e-newspaper on iPad
- Token authentication issue
- Server unavailable when trying to sign in
- Ads or messages float over the text
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- App crashes or freezes
- Cannot find account information
- Subscription promo does not work through App Store
- Comic view stays in portrait mode
- Band on top asking to close paper is annoying
Requested features
14 requests- Restore the old app until the new one is fixed
- Fix the app to load e-newspaper properly on iPad
- Fix the app to allow landscape view for comics
- Remove the band asking to close the paper
- Resolve token authentication issues
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- Improve search functionality to find recent articles
- Allow direct access to e-newspaper upon app launch
- Improve local election coverage and include third parties
- Balance news content to reduce bias
- Include more investigative reports
- Make the app more intuitive and user-friendly
- Ensure subscription promos work correctly through App Store
- Fix the issue of finding account information
- Improve app stability to prevent crashing/freezing
In-app purchases
NJ.com
- Rutgers Sports Insider$5.991 Month
- Digital Access$9.991 Month
- Digital Access1 Month trial$9.991 Month
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- Subscriber Exclusive Content7 Days trial$9.991 Month
- Subscriber Exclusive Content1 Month trial2 variants$9.991 Month
- Monthly Access1 Month trial$10.001 Month
- All Access to NJ.com7 Days trial$10.001 Month
- All Access to NJ.com$11.991 Month
- All Access to NJ.com$15.001 Month
- All Access to New Jersey$15.001 Month
- Rutgers Sports Insider$59.991 Year
- All Access to NJ.com6 Months trial$75.001 Year
- All Access to NJ.com1 Year trial$99.991 Year
- Subscriber Exclusive Content1 Year trial2 variants$99.991 Year
- Annual Access1 Year trial$100.001 Year
- All Access to NJ.com$119.991 Year
My Central Jersey
- Monthly Digital Rate1 Month trial$9.991 Month
- Monthly Digital Rate1 Month trial$14.991 Month
- My Central Jersey Digital Subscription1 Month trial$16.991 Month
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- My Central Jersey Annual Digital Subscription1 Year trial$69.991 Year
