A Couple of Things
Live and learn. We launched Brooklyn Record almost exactly a year ago with the idea that there was a whole lot of stuff going on in Brooklyn that had little to do with real estate and that wasn’t being adequately covered in any one blog. We still think it’s a valid concept but we’ve decided…
Live and learn. We launched Brooklyn Record almost exactly a year ago with the idea that there was a whole lot of stuff going on in Brooklyn that had little to do with real estate and that wasn’t being adequately covered in any one blog. We still think it’s a valid concept but we’ve decided to leave it to someone with deeper pockets to try and to stick to our knitting here at Brownstoner. It’s been hard trying to support two brands and creating artificial boundaries editorially; frankly, it’s also proven a lot harder to support a general interest blog with advertising. Going forward, some of the things we’ve been putting in the Brooklyn Record basket in recent months—like storefront openings and closings and the more human-interest side of real estate, for example—will find a home under the Brownstoner umbrella. Other topics, like kick-boxing classes and indie rock concerts aren’t going to make the cut.
In other news, we’re in the process of upgrading the site to a new system that will dramatically improve the user experience and strengthen the sense of community. Within the next few weeks, readers will be able to have their own profile pages which they can use to track comment threads, upload photos of their house or apartment and connect directly with other readers. The new system will also make the Forum much more flexible and user-friendly. We can’t wait.
Onward and upward.
Mr. B
i’m going to miss it!!!
i felt it was a genuine finger on the brooklyn pulse
“It is kind of interesting to hear now from people who really liked the site though. That kind of positive feedback was almost completely absent while it was up and running.”
Things that are good don’t always get “appreciated” in obvious ways. Brownstoner is, in my opinion, mainly a boring real-estate blog for the obsessed, and not nearly as good as anything on Brooklyn Record, which was actually useful.
Brownstoner and Brooklyn Record have strengthened the sense of community in Brooklyn. The lack of comments on BR don’t fully reflect the site’s usefulness for the Brooklyn community. I read BR daily and appreciate the links to my blog DumboNYC and other Brooklyn blogs. We will miss you BR and look forward to the improved Brownstoner!
Interesting you say that, Brooklyn Bum. We don’t think Brownstoner is aimed at people in the real estate biz at all. It’s aimed at anyone who cares about the community they live in. Obviously there’s extra incentive to read it if you already own property or plan to be buying soon but probably only about half of all posts deal exclusively with analyzing current listings and sales. Hopefully adding in coverage of retail openings and closing will widen the scope for people like you.
I’m a daily Brooklyn Record reader and sometime poster, I don’t get the point of Brownstoner, unless you are in the Real Estate biz. Too bad. I will miss the Record, I hope you can really change Brownstoner to incorporate both audiences. – good luck.
Sorry to see that you can’t keep the Brooklyn Record afloat. It was a great resource and I’ll miss it. Hopefully you can incorporate some of the content into Brownstoner. I actually preferred the broader range of topics, and there does tend to be a lot of venom from certain readers in your comments. Good luck!
With few exceptions, i believe most readers are underage. I think most replies are by latch key children. There elders don’t seem very informed, including the real estate market. It seems
the only talk on this site is how much the market will rise, even when all analysts say otherwise.
As a real estate broker I will tell you the market was not alive and well after
the tradegy of 9-11. Many nykers left and haven’t come back. With the new terror news, many are thinking of leaving. According to your marketeers, my three thouses must be worth twenty million. To the uncultured, to the less than noble, to the dumbing down of America, I take a long cold drink of bottled water.
Sorry bhill. We sunk $30,000 (which is a TON of money for our little operation and was only possible because we had a paycheck from another job for most of that time) into Brooklyn Record over the past 12 months and couldn’t afford to keep doing that indefinitely with no sign of the site being able to sustain itself. It was also quite hard to find writers willing to work for the kind of peanuts we were able to pay; and when you’re paying people peanuts, it’s hard to be too demanding. It is kind of interesting to hear now from people who really liked the site though. That kind of positive feedback was almost completely absent while it was up and running. We can’t tell you how many times we’d meet people who’d gush on and on about Brownstoner only to find that they never read Brooklyn Record or hadn’t even heard of it. At the very least it’s nice to hear now that there were people out there who liked it. But do not despair too much, much of the service element of the site will reappear on Brownstoner in one way or another over the next two or three months. In the end, it will really only be the most lifestyle-y first-person stories that are going to fall by the wayside.
I think it’s a big mistake and a loss to the community. Even if you just consolidated the blog into links posting, it would have still been a valuable resource. Just to pull the plug completely on something that I read every day seems a bit brash. Ultimately it’s your call, sure. But what’s the point of building a fan-base over the past year and then ditching the ship without at least a call for thoughts and comments from the community *you have helped foster* ??
Isn’t community what we love so much about brooklyn?
I don’t know guys… I’m dissapointed.