Friday, February 23, 2018

Report: Gothamist will return via WNYC thanks to 2 anonymous donors


Per WNYC:

In a deal largely funded by two anonymous donors, WNYC is acquiring the news site Gothamist, including its archives, domain name and social media assets. The move comes as part of a larger deal involving two other public radio stations and Gothamist's network of local news sites. KPCC in Pasadena, Calif., will take over LAist, while WAMU in Washington will acquire DCist.

"For more than a decade, Gothamist served as a source of trusted local news," New York Public Radio president and CEO Laura Walker said in a press release. "That resonates with us at WNYC, where we are committed to telling stories rooted in New York and that matter to New Yorkers. As we’ve seen a decline in local journalism in even the largest metropolitan areas across the country, even at a time when it’s so vital, we remain committed to strong, independent reporting that fills the void."

Per Wired, the deal was spearheaded by Gothamist founders Jake Dobkin and Jen Chung, who will start publishing again this spring.

DNAinfo, however, will not be returning. Its archives will live on.

Publisher Joe Ricketts abruptly shut down Gothamist and DNAinfo last Nov. 2.

Updated:
Find more details in the post at Splinter titled The Many Questions Surrounding the Revival of Gothamist.


Previously on EV Grieve:
Updated: Joe Ricketts just shut down Gothamist and DNAinfo (46 comments)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Positive media news for a change

Anonymous said...

This is amazing! I know they sometimes got criticized for aggregating news from other sources, but they were doing a lot of important original reporting as well, and paying attention to many topics few others do. For me, some of these underreported local topics include community board shenanigans, public transit issues, and traffic violence. This is great news; I've missed them a lot and am so happy to see this!

Eden Bee said...

Yay!

Anonymous said...

i'd rather see DNAinfo come back. I like that they covered the un-glamorous neighborhood news like schools whereas gothamist glommed on to posts on hip taco places

Cosmo said...

This is great news. Gothamist was my first place to check for subway news and city politics.

JQ LLC said...

This is OK news considering how they were unceremoniously and spitefully dropped when the writers decided to unionize. But there are things to be considered.

It would be nice to know who bailed out the newsblog with WNYC. The last thing the media needs is a (neo)liberal version of Breitbart.

Since WNYC is involved, does this mean our tax dollars are paying for what was basically a site promoting exorbitant priced drinking and dining?

https://impunitycity.wordpress.com/




Giovanni said...

Gothamist returning is great news, but lets not forget that it was founders Jake Dobkin and Jen Chung who sold it to right-wing anti-Obama billionaire and Trump supporter Joe Ricketts. What did they thinking when they sold their big city liberal anti-Trump website to a guy with such a terrible background? So now they are returning thanks to funding from liberal public radio stations. Do these people have any values beyond generating clickbait for money? They obviously don't care where the next dollar is coming from. I can't wait for the Gothamist beg-a-thons when they interrupt articles about overpriced restuarants with an interstitials selling Frank Sinatra and Downton Abbey DVDs.