Torontoist, which split off five years ago [a],
is still surviving. The others (Chicago, LA,
SF, DC) are toast
[a] for some loose value of 5 which could
be anywhere from 2 to 20
[from the new owner]
https://assets.dnainfo.com/message.html
November 2, 2017
Dear DNAinfo and Gothamist Readers:
Today, I've made the difficult decision to discontinue publishing DNAinfo and
Gothamist. Reaching this decision wasn't easy, and it wasn't one I made
lightly.
I started DNAinfo in 2009 at a time when few people were investing in media
companies. But I believed an opportunity existed to build a successful company
that would report unbiased neighborhood news and information. These were
stories that weren't getting told, and because I believe people care deeply
about the things that happen where they live and work, I thought we could build
a large and loyal audience that advertisers would want to reach.
A lot of what I believed would happen did, but not all of it. Today, DNAinfo
and Gothamist deliver news and information each day to over half a million
people's email inboxes; we have over 2 million fans across our social channels;
and each month, we have over 15 million visits to our sites by over 9 million
people. But more important than large numbers of visits and fans, we've
reported tens of thousands of stories that have informed, impacted, and
inspired millions of people. And in the process, I believe we've left the world
a better place.
But DNAinfo is, at the end of the day, a business, and businesses need to be
economically successful if they are to endure. And while we made important
progress toward building DNAinfo into a successful business, in the end, that
progress hasn't been sufficient to support the tremendous effort and expense
needed to produce the type of journalism on which the company was founded. I
want to thank our readers for their support and loyalty through the years. And
I want to thank our employees for their tireless effort and dedication.
I'm hopeful that in time, someone will crack the code on a business that can
support exceptional neighborhood storytelling for I believe telling those
stories remains essential.
Sincerely,
Joe Ricketts
Chief Executive Officer
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
[email protected]
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]
