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!
“in 4 years the times “organization” wont staff those things either.”
Perhaps…we will see, won’t we?
thanks. no gauntlet though. i come in peace. the more the merrier. no HOTD unless our realestate suits make me do it, promise.
Ah- the gauntlet has been thrown down. Welcome to b’stoner, Mr. Newman. When does Crown Heights get its blog? 🙂
dear brownstoners –
thank you all for all the love. andy newman here, veteran ny times brooklyn reporter and, now, fledgling fortgreene/clintonhill blogger. this despite the fact that, as our pals at clintonhillblog reported and as i confirmed there, i reside, perhaps unforgivably, in park slope, the soho of montclair.
as i said on chb, i’m thrilled to be here, happy to not be writing about park slope, and hoping you’ll come check out The Local (that’s what it’s called) starting monday at nytimes.com/fortgreene and nytimes.com/clintonhill, where we will be blogging like crazy, linking religiously to our betters at brownstoner and elsewhere, looking for ways to serve you and get your voices heard and showering the neighborhood with the journalistic attention such an amazing place deserves.
to answer a couple of the questions posed above:
dibs, the small footprint is because this kind of blog, where we’re going to attempt to tease out every thread in the complex fabric of a neighborhood’s life, only makes sense to do at a scale this small, and barely that – there are more than 50,000 people in fg and ch, which is kind of a lot. if this blog and its new jersey counterpart take off, the times will replicate them elsewhere.
brenda, we also (of course) have interns from columbia. and queens college. as well as cuny. it takes a village of unpaid labor to get something like this going.
yours in infinite engagement,
– andy
eny:
in 4 years the times “organization” wont staff those things either.
“””
Bloggers don’t employs large staffs that report on specific beats and topics. Bloggers don’t maintain news and photography bureaus in international cities. Bloggers don’t attempt to investigate or explore subjects outside of their (often) narrow purview.
“””
thats 4 years to get up to speed.
the smart existing organizations pulled ut years ago…
knight-ridder in 2006, pulitzers ???
Wow.
> “and the snark shall rule them all!”
One Snark to rule them all
One Snark to find them
One Snark to bring them all
and in the snarkness blog them
“they stll have the albatross of a print edition. they are FOLLOWING, not LEADING.”
It’s The Times’ news organization that’s the important thing. Like it or not, the newsgathering organization continues to lead. The blogosphere cannot exist (not yet, anyway) without the traditional media. Bloggers don’t employs large staffs that report on specific beats and topics. Bloggers don’t maintain news and photography bureaus in international cities. Bloggers don’t attempt to investigate or explore subjects outside of their (often) narrow purview. Bloggers NEED traditional media. That said, papers like the Times will continue to seek ways to break into the undeniable momentum and (hopefully) profitability of the blog/online culture.
quote – While it’s nice to have something else to read online that relates more or less to where I live, in my experience the Times lately doesn’t have the balls to be really edgy and interesting.
well they did run that piece this week about the new sex club in brooklyn, with a positive spin and outlook on it!
*r*