Back in February news broke that Gothamist was returning, thanks to WNYC and its parent company New York Public Radio — along with two anonymous donors — who had acquired the local news site's assets.
And yesterday (ICYMI), the Gothamist co-founders launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise $100,000 by May 4.
Per Kickstarter:
And now it’s our priority to build out the site and bring back the Gothamist you love. We aim to get Gothamist back to full strength and make it sustainable for years to come.
With your support, Gothamist will have the resources to expand coverage of issues that are vital to the social fabric of New York City: transportation, affordable housing, gentrification, demonic landlords, immigration, and the living wage struggle. We’re proud of our past work on these topics—as well as our vibrant culture and food reporting—and we’re committed to deepening and diversifying our coverage of New York City.
Gothamist is now a part of member supported New York Public Radio, which is a registered 501c3. Your pledge is tax deductible, minus the value and/services of your selected reward and credit card processing and Kickstarter fees. At the end of the campaign, when we reach our goal and credit card transactions are completed, we will send out tax acknowledgement letters.
It’s simple: all funds raised with this Kickstarter will go to funding Gothamist. The first $100,000 will help revive the website and bring back our popular newsletter. It will also enable us to preserve the Gothamist and DNAinfo archives. But this is just the beginning. The more we raise, the better we can serve you.
As of this morning, they'd already raised more than $73,000.
And a few more details via the Observer:
It might seem strange for a site to crowdfund after being acquired by another company. But the Kickstarter funds, along with the funding for the acquisition, will help Gothamist relaunch faster than it would have otherwise.
“We were fortunate to be able to quickly shore up the support we needed to make the acquisition by connecting with funders who share our commitment to local journalism,” Jennifer Houlihan Roussel, vice president of communications for New York Public Radio, told Observer. “The Kickstarter will enable us to launch as quickly and as robustly as possible.”
Dobkin will handle strategy and revenue at the new Gothamist, while co-founder Jen Chung will be in charge of editorial matters.
After this initial funding push, Gothamist will transition to WNYC’s fundraising model, which relies on membership, philanthropy and sponsorship. Dobkin said he hopes to garner 10,000 to 20,000 subscribers for the site and also woo new advertisers.
Publisher Joe Ricketts abruptly shut down Gothamist and DNAinfo last Nov. 2 after the newsrooms of both sites voted to join the Writers Guild of America East. DNAinfo, however, will not be returning. Its archives will remain online.
In unrelated news about local sites, prospects remain at their dimmest for a return of EV Heave, though the publisher will listen to offers in the two-figure range, we're told.
For further reading:
Gothamist's Kickstarter Raises More Questions Than It Answers (Splinter)