Bursting the Hyperlocal Bubble

When Jake Dobkin, impresario of the Gothamist web franchise of urban concern and rabid hectorer/master curator of the staid cabal of Mainstream Media, last joined a Gelf Media Circus panel to discuss the business of hyperlocal journalism, he stated his feelings on the practice plainly: He didn’t care much for it at all.

Cut to a year later, when the hyperlocal model continues to gain notable footholds in serious markets—like New York City, where journalism programs at CUNY and Columbia University have yoked themselves to the block-by-block beats of major news organizations, and NYU is experimenting wildly in East Village—and Dobkin is still unimpressed.