New Website Aims To Add To NYC's Local News Coverage

NEW YORK — After three of New York City's local news outlets were shuttered and one of its storied tabloids gutted in just the past year, some of the city's veteran journalists are hoping to add to local coverage with a new nonprofit publication.

The City, an online outlet dedicated to reporting that holds local officials accountable, is set to launch later this year with a staff of about 15 journalists and support from New York Magazine, its leadership announced Wednesday.

Led by editor-in-chief Jere Hester, a former editor at the New York Daily News and the director of the NYCity News Service at CUNY's Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, the site will collaborate with other publications and bring New Yorkers coverage of critical issues such as transportation, immigration, housing and criminal justice, the founders announced.

"New Yorkers consume lots of news and The City is going to aggressively hold the powers in New York accountable," Hester said in a statement. "We're going to build a newsroom that reflects the city — as well as the mix of skills needed to thrive in the fast-changing journalism world."

The announcement comes just weeks after the Village Voice abruptly stopped publishing new articles and slashed its staff. But the pioneering alt-weekly was just the latest local news source to be closed or crippled by cuts in recent months.

The Daily News laid off half its editorial staff in July as part of a newsroom restructuring, and the billionaire owner of DNAinfo and Gothamist shut down those sites last November after their New York workers voted to unionize. Gothamist was later taken over by WNYC and relaunched.

Patch is one of the few organizations that has increased its coverage of New York City in recent months.

The City has a partnership with a comparatively well-heeled publication that's still standing: New York Magazine. The City will be able to take advantage of the magazine's online distribution network, which attracts more than 40 million monthly unique visitors, and collaborate with its editorial staff, according to a news release.

"We believe that our partnership with The City provides a new, replicable model for how nonprofit and for-profit journalism can work together, building on successful collaborations New York has had with organizations like ProPublica and the Marshall Project," Adam Moss, the magazine's editor-in-chief, said in a statement.

The City already has $8.5 million in funding from a slate of philanthropic organizations, including the Charles H. Revson Foundation and Craig Newmark Philanthropies, led by the namesake founder of craigslist.com.

Kai Falkenberg, a former first deputy commissioner in the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment will lead its business operation as executive director, and BuzzFeed News editor-in-chief Ben Smith will chair its board.

The site will also be supported by an advisory board that includes some of the city's best known journalists, such as WNYC host Brian Lehrer, NY1 anchor Errol Louis and Jezebel founder Anna Holmes.

"This new, digitally native publication is built to engage this diverse city on the biggest stories that matter to everyone — the crises in transportation and affordability, the battle for the city’s future — and to force political leaders to respond to what matters to their citizens," Smith said in a statement.

(Lead image: Photo from Shutterstock)