We remain committed to strong, independent reporting that fills the void

February 23, 2018 8:14 AM

Public radio stations WNYC (New York), KPCC (Southern California), and WAMU (Washington, D.C.) have joined together to acquire key assets of Gothamist and its associated sites LAist and DCist. The acquisition is being funded in large part through philanthropic donations from two anonymous donors. Is this another indication of the rising wave of nonprofit journalism?

Post from the November 2017 shutdown of Gothamist and DNAinfo.

posted by showbiz_liz (22 comments total)

Great news! Hopefully great news for its labour force as well.
posted by Capt. Renault at 8:26 AM on February 23, 2018 [3 favorites]

Wow. It's been so long since I heard good news about independent media that it's going to take a little while to process this. But, yeah, wow.
posted by gwint at 8:28 AM on February 23, 2018 [5 favorites]

Hey, this sounds promising.

Your move, KCRW!
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:30 AM on February 23, 2018 [3 favorites]

I thought Gothamist, et al, have been closed for a while, no? Reopening?
This is awesome...kinda makes me think of the post a while back about the idea of a 'social investment fund' (basically a big mutual fund that would be maintained by the govt. that would pay out dividends to all citizens) ...I bet something like that could work for journalism.
posted by sexyrobot at 8:32 AM on February 23, 2018

I really believe that nonprofit journalism may be the ultimate solution to the current clickbaitization crisis in news. Here's another article that goes into the concept more.
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:32 AM on February 23, 2018 [2 favorites]

Huzzah!
posted by grumpybear69 at 8:32 AM on February 23, 2018

More details from Wired.

The details of the integration are still being ironed out. Initially, WNYC plans to run Gothamist as a parallel site, seeded with stories by Chung, members of the WNYC staff, and eventually, a mix of new hires and former Gothamist writers interested in getting the band back together.

And in Washington, DC, WAMU plans to hire a three-person staff and begin publishing new content to DCist by spring.

posted by 1970s Antihero at 8:34 AM on February 23, 2018 [2 favorites]

OMG YES. YES!!! I just let out a whoop of joy. The other people on this Amtrak train probably think I just won some money or got my dream job. But no, I’m just filed with astonished happiness at this completely un-looked-for win for independent journalism and civic engagement.
posted by minervous at 8:39 AM on February 23, 2018 [6 favorites]

WOOO-HOOOOOO!!!

I do hope DNAInfo comes back too. Gothamist is great, but they didn't do a lot of good coverage in the outer borough neighborhoods, especially Central Queens, where I'm at. DNAInfo was great for that, and the other Queens-focused local sites like QNS and Queens Chronicle are weak sauce at best.
posted by SansPoint at 8:42 AM on February 23, 2018 [2 favorites]

Hey, KQED, good opportunity to join forces for SFist!
posted by stevil at 8:42 AM on February 23, 2018 [5 favorites]

I do hope DNAInfo comes back too. Gothamist is great, but they didn't do a lot of good coverage in the outer borough neighborhoods, especially Central Queens, where I'm at. DNAInfo was great for that, and the other Queens-focused local sites like QNS and Queens Chronicle are weak sauce at best.

Patch.com says "WNYC plans to relaunch Gothamist in the spring [...] DNAinfo will remain archived but ostensibly in WNYC's hands." Obviously it's a developing situation though. And potentially Gothamist's coverage could become more inclusive, as well.

(I signed up for Patch.com alerts after Gothamist and DNAinfo were shut down, and it's a decent enough source of methadone. I actually found out about Gothamist returning because of an email notification from Patch. Not sure how their Queens reporting is though.)
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:46 AM on February 23, 2018 [1 favorite]

I do hope DNAInfo comes back too.

Veterans from the Chicago branch of DNAInfo are putting together a new journalism outfit called Block Club. Some of their initial funding is coming off of Kickstarter, but they seem to be betting on a blockchain/crypto framework called Civil for long-term sustainability.
posted by Iridic at 8:50 AM on February 23, 2018 [2 favorites]

showbiz_liz: I'd heard Patch was also fairly crappy, but I'll give them a second shot.

Iridic: For Chicago's sake, I hope this works out! Though maybe WBEZ will step up their game.
posted by SansPoint at 8:54 AM on February 23, 2018

I'd heard Patch was also fairly crappy, but I'll give them a second shot.

They're not amazing or anything, but I've definitely found them to be better than nothing.
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:56 AM on February 23, 2018

I had no idea how much I depended on Gothamist for those local things that didn't get reported elsewhere until they were gone. If they come back, I promise to donate to public radio.
posted by AMyNameIs at 9:22 AM on February 23, 2018 [5 favorites]

Yeah, where is KQED and why aren't they bringing back SFist?
posted by PhineasGage at 9:22 AM on February 23, 2018 [4 favorites]

seeded with stories by Chung

I wish they could keep Chung away from all this, since it was her and Dobkin's short-sighted avarice in selling the network to Ricketts that started this whole ordeal in the first place.
posted by General Malaise at 9:42 AM on February 23, 2018 [1 favorite]

I had no idea how bad I needed some good news. This has brightened my day in an astonishing manner.
posted by double bubble at 10:01 AM on February 23, 2018 [2 favorites]

I let my membership to WNYC lapse after I stopped working there. Even though I don't live in New York anymore, I may have to donate again! This is amazing.
posted by Automocar at 10:04 AM on February 23, 2018 [1 favorite]

I wish they could keep Chung away from all this

Jen & Jake did a wonderful job on Gothamist for 14 years—it was a site about NYC with a voice that sounded like NYC. They make one bad decision, that was probably driven by finances that you and I aren’t privy to, and now they must be written off completely?
posted by 1970s Antihero at 10:04 AM on February 23, 2018 [8 favorites]

They make one bad decision, that was probably driven by finances that you and I aren’t privy to, and now they must be written off completely?

I think for a lot of people it's not the decision to sell, but the disingenuous way they handled the requirements of that sale:

'“Just as Bloomberg doesn’t cover Bloomberg, we don’t plan to cover Joe Ricketts and so we decided to take down our coverage of him. No one asked us to do it,” Gothamist co-founder Jake Dobkin told Jezebel. “It was a decision made solely by Jen [Chung] and me.” (In fact, Bloomberg frequently covers Bloomberg.)'
posted by halation at 2:09 PM on February 23, 2018 [4 favorites]

Yeah, the decision to sell Gothamist was one thing -- I can certainly understand that they might have found themselves facing a future of not being able to make payroll and thinking it was Ricketts or nothing, or even just selling because they wanted financial security for themselves/their families alone. It's the fact that they took down previous articles about Ricketts, and then that utterly craven "We also owe Joe Ricketts and the management team many thanks for giving us this opportunity and their strong support of journalism." statement they issued after Ricketts shut down the sites and fired everyone the second they unionized. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to have any faith in Dobkin & Chung's journalistic ethics after all that.

But I sure have missed being able to check Gothamist throughout the day for local news, and I felt terrible for all the writers getting fired the way they did, so, I'll hope for the best.
posted by oh yeah! at 6:28 PM on February 23, 2018