First-Ever Focused Publication for New Jersey’s Booming Film Industry Arrives April 30 at Meadowlands Arena
EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ, UNITED STATES, April 23, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — New Jersey is the fastest-growing film production market in the United States. Its filming count jumped 45 percent in Q1 2026 while every other major market in the country declined. Netflix is building a billion-dollar studio at Fort Monmouth. Lionsgate is rising in Newark. Paramount just signed a ten-year lease in Bayonne. And until now, the state that invented American cinema has never had its own film focused publication.
That changes on April 30.
SOCKO!, a new magazine built both for the New Jersey film and television industry and its fans, launches its inaugural issue at the New Jersey Film Expo at Meadowlands Arena in East Rutherford. The issue is titled “New Jersey Now!” and its cover, unveiled here for the first time, was photographed by Samad Haq and features two-and-a-half-year-old Viva June as a goddess of entertainment, golden lightning bolt in hand, standing at the gates of a new era. It is intentionally symbolic: old Hollywood DNA, young Jersey fire.
SOCKO! is co-founded by Angela Matusik and Adam Nelson. Matusik, who serves as Editor in Chief, was one of the founding editors of InStyle, held senior editorial leadership roles at People and NBCUniversal, and ran global brand and content at HP. She has produced several award-winning documentary film series including The Big Idea, which won a 2024 Webby, and is co-founder of the Maplewood Film Society. Nelson, SOCKO!’s Publisher, wrote the issue’s cover story, is founder of Workhouse, an award-winning public relations agency, and a professor at the New Jersey Film Academy at Brookdale Community College.
“The idea for SOCKO! rose out of a constant drumbeat about how much is happening around film and entertainment in New Jersey right now,” said Matusik. “We’ve seen our charming village taken over by production crews. Everyone you meet is working on a new show, play, or film project. The new studios are rising. One thing is clear: New Jersey deserves its own publication that not only celebrates its historic influence on film, but its new starring role as the heartbeat of the entertainment industry.”
“I have spent my whole life at the intersection of performance and storytelling, and I have never seen anything like what is happening in the state right now,” said Nelson. “We named it SOCKO! because that is the sound a great story makes when it hits you in the chest. Which is what is happening in New Jersey right now, the original home of American cinema. It’s waking up after a hundred-year nap. Every great industry deserves a voice that matches its ambition. 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.”
The inaugural issue is stacked. Nelson’s cover story, “New Jersey Now!,” is a full-throated declaration on the state’s return to the center of filmmaking. Nicole Acosta of the Thomas Edison Foundation contributes “The Mother of All Film Studios,” tracing the story of Edison’s Black Maria in West Orange, the $650 shack where all of this began, and in a magazine born in the same state as the medium itself, the piece reads less like history and more like a birth certificate. “There Is Oil in the Ground” dives into the Netflix studios at Fort Monmouth, the gold rush it ignites, and the warning the state cannot afford to forget. “America’s Greatest Export Is Leaving Home” makes the case for a federal film tax incentive through the Coalition for American Production, the nationwide alliance fighting to keep production on American soil. Barry Lyga profiles legendary producer Michael Uslan, the New Jersey Hall of Famer behind the Batman franchise, in “Life Lessons from Batman’s Protector and Defender.” Nelson sits down with Diane Raver, the woman who built the New Jersey Film Academy, in “The Keeper of Jersey’s Cinematic Flame.” Wilhelm Kuhn profiles master film editor Tim Squyres, Ang Lee’s longtime collaborator, in “Shining Light on the Man in the Dark.” Matusik profiles renowned production designer Jane Musky, the talent behind When Harry Met Sally and Ghost, in “Magic Maker,” and much, much more.
SOCKO! launches at the second annual New Jersey Film Expo, the largest gathering of the state’s film and television production community. Last year’s inaugural Expo drew more than 3,000 attendees and 80 vendors. This year returns bigger, with speaker panels, exhibits from indie suppliers to major studio operations, and a keynote address by Governor Mikie Sherrill. The Expo is hosted by the Screen Alliance of New Jersey, April 30 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Meadowlands Arena, 50 State Route 120, East Rutherford, NJ 07073. Admission is free. Register at screenalliancenj.com/nj-film-expo.
Founding partners of SOCKO! include the Edison Foundation, the New Jersey Film Academy, the New Jersey Production Guide, the Garden State Film Festival, and Workhouse.
For more information, visit sockomagazine.com.
Kat Carlson
WORKHOUSE
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