The Times To Launch Local Blogging Initiative
Look out, local bloggers, the Gray Lady is moving in on your turf. Starting mid-day on Monday, The New York Times will be rolling out a neighborhood blog initiative. Our home soil of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill will be one of the two pilot sites (the other site will cover Millburn, Maplewood and South…
Look out, local bloggers, the Gray Lady is moving in on your turf. Starting mid-day on Monday, The New York Times will be rolling out a neighborhood blog initiative. Our home soil of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill will be one of the two pilot sites (the other site will cover Millburn, Maplewood and South Orange in New Jersey). According to an email that was forwarded to us, the subject matter will include “cultural events, bar and restaurant openings, real estate, arts, fashion, health, social concerns and anything else that goes on in the ‘SoHo of Brooklyn.'” Each site will be helmed by a writer/editor from the paper, a Times official told us, but will draw upon contributors from the neighborhood as well as some free labor from the CUNY journalism program. Readers will be able to post everything from short films to wedding announcements, and a map-based real estate listings section will tie back to the Times’ main real estate site. Wonder if they’ll have a House of the Day post as well? The game is on!
Mopar: Perhaps you went on a date with the like-named Andrew Adam Newman, a Times freelancer who, unlike me, is unmarried? See if he looks familiar:
http://www.andrewadamnewman.com/bio.html
Yeah, of course you guys are loyal, this is your own private little party here. Maybe the comments section on the Times’ blog will actually be readable….maybe not….
…NEWMAN!
final thought from me…(on this)
welcome back to brooklyn nytimes(you have a former printing plant in brooklyn).
there will be competition.
there will be fun.
there will be many contenders(most as yet unborn).
lets see darwin realtime.
p.s. i have to look it up somewhere but there is a nytimes artcle from way back where the times welcomed the brooklyn daily eagle to the newspaper fold in the 1850s. they said(i paraphrase), we’ll do the news, you can do the fluff.
turnabaout is fair play. i think the times will do the fluff better, cause thats what will sell the papers longer.
I just hope they catch up to the neighborhood more quickly than they did in Williamsburg. The Times seems to only comment on the ever expanding gentrification there. So, good luck Mr. Newman. There are only a handful of good blogs about FG, so here’s hoping this is a positive addition. Just try to keep the breathless “Visit from Manhattan, there are white people on the streets at night!” columns to a minimum. FG is a complex and storied neighborhood that deserves better than updates on who was spotted at the Flea market and which TV show is filming there next.
I don’t see why a number of good sites can’t co-exist. I’d go to the NYT site for credible local news (which there really isn’t any more in specific bklyn neighborhoods), and BS for real estate/renovation/forum. The beauty of the Web is that there’s unlimited room and the cost of entry is zero. And don’t forget that the corporate-ness of the NYT is going to prevent the freewheeling nature of sites like BS…which is what i love about it…
Andy Newman, didn’t we have a date in 2006/7? Ha!
I second the ‘following’ comment. But why not, let’s see what they do. Good luck AN.
eny:
i’ll bet some cash they wont.
brand alone wll die.
sears anyone.