DNAinfo
Ups and downs of the Great New York City Chicken Frenzy
Chicken owners in Red Hook whose backyard flooded during the storm were obliged to relocate their feathered pets indoors, with quirky if malodorous results. The chickens—one of whom is named Chicki Minaj—were eventually returned to their outdoor lot, where they encountered another chicken whose owner was unable to care for it. But according to yet another chicken-centric piece in the Times, that chicken, Cindy, has since disappeared, and may be wandering the flood-damaged streets of Red Hook as we speak. More
New York hyperlocal startup DNAinfo launches in Chicago
The inaugural DNAinfo site has been a hit in New York in terms of traffic, buzz and newsbreaks.
It has yet to be seen whether the site is making any money from its hybrid business model of hyperlocal display advertising and additional revenue streams like sponsored events. More
DNAinfo, in bid to raise profile among local advertisers, starts 'Small Business Insider'
"Small Business Insider," which launched today, is "a premium video series that highlights the city’s most innovative and unique neighborhood businesses," according to a press release. More
Inside billionaire Joe Ricketts' dreams of media empire
Ricketts is somewhat enigmatic. He’s not a recluse, but he seldom gives interviews, preferring instead to speak to his public, such as it is, directly, either through occasional blog posts on his personal website, or the professionally edited shorts that reside on his YoutTube channel. He is not a player in the digital media scene; not among its savants, its big-name consultants or its bankrollers, whether they’re do-good charities or venture firms. He is active in politics, but he pays into his political activities directly; there is no discernible political agenda to DNAinfo, and if anything the site seems to skew against determining the course of the conversation, focusing instead on breaking straight news and saturating at the pavement rather than the council chamber and the executive offices of government or the boardrooms of the city’s power elites. More
Another tabloid vet leaves for DNAinfo
James Fanelli, an assistant city editor at the Daily News, will leave the paper after this week for a new gig as a general assignment reporter for DNAinfo. More
(1)Press scrambles to cover new Etan Patz developments
The news that a New Jersey man has claimed to have murdered Etan Patz on May 25, 1979, a date that became known as National Missing Children’s Day in his memory, came too late, or too early, for today's newspapers. The question is whether the story will remain big enough for tomorrow's. More
In a memo, Ricketts tells his news staff his politics have 'absolutely no impact' on their work
Ricketts tells his staff in the memo, obtained by Capital, that "although I feel a strong obligation as a citizen to engage politically in support of the principles I hold dear, I feel equally strongly that my personal politics should have absolutely no impact on your work as objective, fair-minded journalists." Whole thing after the jump. More
With an anti-Obama attack plan, DNAinfo owner Joe Ricketts comes out of his shell
One thing not mentioned in today's bombshell article in The New York Times about billionaire Joe Ricketts, the man behind a Super PAC campaign to revive the issue of pastor Jeremiah Wright in the 2012 election cycle? More
(2)DNAinfo cleans up in New York Press Club Awards
The insurgent and curiously-named local news site picked up six wins in the annual journalism competition. That's more than any other outlet except for the Associated Press, which also won in six categories, including the topmost Golden Keyboard Award for its series on the NYPD's conterversial Muslim surveillance program. More
Reporter Murray Weiss sticks by his story about John Edwards and the soccer-mom madam as former senator's attorneys threaten
John Edwards' attorneys have threatened litigation against local news website DNAinfo after the site published a report Thursday about the former senator and presidential candidate, according to the site's managing editor Michael Ventura. Crime and investigative reporter Murray Weiss reported that a prostitute working with soccer-mom Madam Anna Gristina told investigators probing Gristina's operation that the former senator and presidential candidate engaged her services during a fund-raising visit to New York in 2007. “Mr. Edwards categorically denies that he was involved with any prostitute or service," one of his attorneys said in a statement yesterday. More
After beating both tabloids to the tale of Madam Gristina, DNAinfo has the 'News' and 'Post' in a sweat
DNAinfo's 30-person staff includes half a dozen refugees from the tabloids, said de Kretser, including Weiss, who stunned media watchers when he suddenly left the Post after 25 years in June of 2010 only to resurface at a curiously named website that no one had heard of.
De Kretser herself is a former Post staffer, and recently nabbed another veteran of her erstwhile employer, William Gorta, to join her growing stable of web journalists.
Gorta's final week at the Post is turning out to be an eventful one: A scene of "consternation" in the newsroom yesterday was described to Capital by people familiar with the situation. More
With varying levels of triumphalism and caution, local news sifts through newly released (and controversial) teacher rankings
Manhattan Institute's Marcus Winters argued in a piece in the News, which published only some of the data: "What’s important now is that New Yorkers read them cautiously. Unfortunately, not everyone is likely to heed this advice." More
Quinn rejects the idea she's veering left, away from Bloomberg
During an appearance on "Good Day New York" today, host Greg Kelly read a line from the Post that said Quinn made "a sharp left turn" in her speech.
