With studios in both Trenton and Newark, NJN's television network covered all of New Jersey, plus parts of Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut and Delaware.

Two other PBS member stations based in Pennsylvania, WLVT-TV in Allentown and WVIA-TV in Scranton, were also viewable in portions of NJN's coverage area.

They served mainly to bring NPR programming to the few areas of New Jersey without a clear signal from New York's WNYC AM-FM and Philadelphia's WHYY-FM.

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.

[2] 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.

[3] 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.

They were as follows:[7][8] 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.

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.

[21] Unlike its television counterpart, NJN Radio covered mainly southern New Jersey, with only two transmitters in the northern part of the state.

Much of the programming came from NPR and other public radio suppliers, with a simulcast of the audio of the television network's NJN News weekday evenings following All Things Considered.