Gothamist To Be Resurrected After Deal With WNYC

NEW YORK, NY — Gothamist and DNAinfo are back from the dead. WNYC has purchased the assets of the shuttered local news sites in a deal funded by two anonymous private donors, the public radio station announced Friday.

WNYC and other public radio stations are taking over the archives, social media accounts and other assets of Gothamist and its sister sites in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., along with DNAinfo. The sites were abruptly shut down by their billionaire owner, Joe Ricketts, in November after New York writers unionized.

WNYC plans to relaunch Gothamist in the spring, said David Cotrone, a spokesman for New York Public Radio, the station's parent company. DNAinfo will remain archived but in WNYC's hands.

"As we’ve seen a decline in local journalism in even the largest metropolitan areas across the country, even at a time when it’s so vital, we remain committed to strong, independent reporting that fills the void," New York Public Radio CEO Laura Walker said in a statement.

Gothamist's home page notes that the site is coming back and solicits sign-ups for an email list. A header on DNAinfo's home page that previously had a link to Ricketts' letter announcing its closure now says, "The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC."

The WAMU station in Washington and KPCC in Los Angeles will similarly take over the assets of DCist and LAist, two of Gothamist's sister sites. The company also had blogs in Chicago, San Francisco and Shanghai.

WNYC did not disclose how much the deal cost. A news release says it came out of a "competitive process" and that Ricketts was advised on it.

"The most important thing for me was to make sure the assets went to a news organization that would honor our commitment to neighborhood storytelling," Ricketts said in a statement Friday. "I can’t think of a better home for these sites and their archives than WNYC and public radio stations KPCC and WAMU."

In relaunching Gothamist, WNYC will resurrect a site that became known for its blogging and reporting on culture, arts and politics while leaving buried DNAinfo, which focused more on hard news and enterprise journalism. The sites' concentrations were not mututally exclusive, though, and their staffs worked together before the shutdown.

Jen Chung and Jake Dobkin founded Gothamist in 2003 and built the New York City blog into a profitable international company. Ricketts bought Gothamist in March 2017 as DNAinfo, which operated in New York and Chicago, remained in the red.

Chung and Dobkin, led the acquisition effort and will once again helm the sites once they're relauncheds, according to Wired, which first reported the deal Friday. Dobkin told the magazine it's "the best possible outcome" after the shutdown.

Chung and Dobkin plan to eventually hire new reporters and former Gothamist writers to staff the resurrected site, Wired reported.

But Gothamist's and DNAinfo's former staffers were not involved in the releaunch deal. In a statement posted to Twitter, the New York staffers' joint union said its members "are learning about the sale with the rest of the public, and are eager to learn more details about what this revival will entail."

Katie Honan, who covered Queens for DNAinfo, said she is glad to see the return of Gothamist as a local news outlet. But she has questions about what mission Gothamist will serve now under WNYC, which has a reputation for strong local journalism, but still led by Dobkin and Chung, who she said put more emphasis on "aggregation and snark."

"We didn’t have the same brand as Gothamist, but I think the work we did was important and it’s something that’s really lacking in journalism today, which is exclusive, on-the-ground reporting in parts of the city that don’t get reported about," Honan said.

DNAinfo and Gothamist staffers started a union drive soon after the merger and its ensuing layoffs. Writers in New York voted 25-2 to join the Writers Guild of America, East on Oct. 26. A week later, Ricketts shut down the sites with no warning to the 115 journalists he put out of work.

Ricketts briefly made the sites' archives inaccessible to the public but restored them after an outcry. Chung and Dobkin were also unfriendly to the union effort, Honan said.

"As work resumes under the auspices of WNYC, WAMU and KPCC, it is our hope that the Gothamist and DNAinfo employees who made the site essential are all able to resume their work," the Writers Guild said in a statement Friday afternoon.

The deal comes after a tumultuous period for WNYC that saw the firings of two top hosts, Leonard Lopate and Jonathan Schwartz, after an investigation into sexual harassment allegations. Walker has faced criticism for not taking swifter action to address such accusations.

New York Public Radio's former chief content officer, Dean Cappello, was moved into an "advisory" role in January, meaning he will no longer oversee WNYC's news and podcast operations following the controversy, WNYC reported last month.

(Lead image: Fired workers from Gothamist and DNAinfo rally outside New York City Hall in November. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)