New Jersey’s Film Boom Just Got Socko! Its Own Magazine

Socko!, co-founded by a PR veteran and a former InStyle editor, debuts at the New Jersey Film Expo on April 30.

Something has been missing from the conversation about New Jersey’s film industry, and it took two people from opposite ends of the business to figure out what it was.

Angela Matusik noticed it from the editorial side. A veteran of InStyle, People, NBCUniversal, and HP, she had spent decades launching and growing publications for national audiences. But when she looked at what was happening in her own state, she saw a story nobody was telling in a sustained, dedicated way. Production crews were taking over her neighborhood in Maplewood. Friends were landing jobs on sets. Studios were going up. And there was no single place to read about any of it.

Adam Nelson noticed it from the industry side. As the founder of Workhouse, a New York public relations agency he has run for 27 years, and a professor at the New Jersey Film Academy at Brookdale Community College, he was watching the boom from inside the machine. He was teaching students who were getting placed on real productions before they finished their certificates. He was fielding calls from producers who wanted to know how to shoot in the state. And every time he looked for a New Jersey film publication to point them toward, the shelf was empty.

On Thursday, April 30, they are filling that shelf.

SOCKO!, a new magazine co-founded by Matusik and Nelson, will launch its inaugural issue at the second annual New Jersey Film Expo at Meadowlands Arena in East Rutherford. The issue is titled “New Jersey Now!” and features a cover photographed by Samad Haq of two-and-a-half-year-old Viva June dressed as a goddess of entertainment, golden lightning bolt in hand, standing before the gates of a movie palace. The image is playful and deliberate: the youngest possible face representing the oldest film state in the country.

“The idea rose out of a constant drumbeat about how much is happening around film and entertainment in New Jersey right now,” said Matusik, who serves as Editor in Chief. “New Jersey deserves its own publication that celebrates its historic influence on film and its new starring role as the heartbeat of the American entertainment industry.”

The timing is difficult to argue with. New Jersey’s filming count jumped 45% in the first quarter of 2026, while every other major production market in the country posted declines. Netflix is constructing a billion-dollar facility on the former Fort Monmouth Army base, expected to open in phases starting in 2027. Lionsgate is building in Newark. Paramount has committed to a ten-year lease in Bayonne. The state now has 70 production stages in operation with 30 more under construction.

The inaugural issue of Socko! takes on the boom from multiple angles. Nelson’s cover story examines the state’s return to the center of American filmmaking. A second feature looks at the Fort Monmouth construction and what it means for the surrounding communities. A third makes the case for a federal film production tax incentive. Barry Lyga profiles Batman producer Michael Uslan. Nelson interviews Diane Raver, the executive director of the New Jersey Film Academy. And the issue traces the industry all the way back to its literal starting point with a feature on Thomas Edison’s Black Maria studio in West Orange, where the first movies were made in 1893.

The magazine is not positioned as an industry-only read. Matusik, who produced several award-winning documentary series, including the 2024 Webby-winning “The Big Idea” and co-founded the Maplewood Film Society, said Socko! is built for professionals and fans alike.

“We wanted something for the person who works on sets and the person who just loves watching what comes off of them,” she said.

Nelson, whose own career spans acting, filmmaking, and public relations, said the magazine fills a gap that has existed for as long as New Jersey has been making movies.

“I have spent my whole life at the intersection of performance and storytelling, and I have never seen anything like what is happening in this state right now,” he said. “We named it Socko! because that is the sound a great story makes when it hits you in the chest. There is no publication like this because there has never been a moment like this. Somebody needed to be in the room writing it all down. That’s us.”

Socko! launches inside the NJ Film Expo, which drew more than 3,000 attendees and 80 vendors in its inaugural year. This year’s event features speaker panels, vendor exhibits ranging from independent equipment suppliers to major studio representatives, and a keynote address by Governor Mikie Sherrill. The Expo is hosted by the Screen Alliance of New Jersey and runs from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Admission is free.

Founding partners of the magazine include the Edison Foundation, the New Jersey Film Academy, the New Jersey Production Guide, the Garden State Film Festival, and Workhouse.

The NJ Film Expo takes place at Meadowlands Arena, 50 State Route 120, East Rutherford. For more information on Socko!, visit the website.