TAPinto.net is a network of more than 80 franchised online local and subject matter news sites in New Jersey, New York, and Florida, with more than 10,000,000 readers during the past year. Each site is franchised to a local owner/publisher and provides original objective daily local news reporting.  Current franchisees include business executives, journalists, public relations professionals, hardcopy newspapers, nonprofits and universities.

TAPinto.net  was founded in October, 2008 by Michael and Lauryn Shapiro, who sought to provide their town’s residents with an all-online, objective, independent, daily local newspaper, and Michael Shapiro is the majority owner.  Today, TAPinto covers more than 100 towns in New Jersey, New York, and Florida, and is accredited by the New Jersey Press Association.  

TAPinto is proud to support charitable causes.  During the past year, TAPinto has donated over $250,000 in marketing and advertising to charitable organizations including Susan G. Komen North Jersey, among others. TAPinto's employees and franchisees are also members of dozens of community organizations including Rotary and the Chamber of Commerce.  

TAPinto offers content marketing, native advertising, social media marketing, exclusive sponsorships, branded content opportunities, email marketing, and traditional online advertising.

TAPinto is available on desktop, mobile, and tablet, and also has a TAPinto App for Android and iPhone.

For more information on marketing on TAPinto, click here.

For more information on franchising a TAPinto site in your area, please visit www.starttap.net

Check out our CEO Michael Shapiro on MSNBC's Your Business discuss his keys to success!

We are always searching for ways to give our franchisees the tools to make their reporting and coverage transparent, independent and objective, while updating our policies to ensure that all of our sites follow the highest ethical standards for journalism. 

Here is what we have done to continue to build trust with our readers:

SPJ Code of Ethics

The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) has served as the preeminent professional association for journalists since 1909.  SPJ publishes a strict code of ethics.  All TAPinto sites are required to adhere to the SPJ Code of Ethics.  You can read more about the Code of Ethics here.

No Editorializing 

While editorial and opinion have their place, TAPinto's mission is focused on reporting the news.  To protect the integrity of reporting, TAPinto maintains a policy that prohibits our franchisees and journalists from engaging in editorialization and opinion journalism. 

No Endorsement of, or Contributions to, Local Political Candidates

Our TAPinto franchises provide readers with important coverage of local government and politics.  To ensure quality, unbiased coverage, we adopted a policy that prohibits franchisees from making endorsements of, or otherwise publicly supporting, their local political candidates in any manner.  We also adopted a policy that prohibits all TAPinto franchisees from contributing to political candidates running for local office in their town(s).  

Disclosure of Ownership

All of our sites are bound by a disclosure policy so our readers know the ownership of each TAPinto franchise.

Disclosure of Perceived or Potential Conflicts of Interest

Since some TAPinto franchisees own other businesses all of our sites are bound by a disclosure policy that requires an Editor’s Note be included at the end of any content about a topic with which the franchisee has a relationship.

Clear Advertising Disclosures

Lines between news content and advertising at times have become blurred as online news organizations test new advertising products and business models.  All of our content advertising and sponsorship is clearly and conspicuously marked so readers know if they're looking at paid content. 

As always, we welcome feedback from TAPinto readers to help us continue to improve and grow.