Earlier this year, NYTimes.com partnered with City University of New York (CUNY) to power a local site in Brooklyn, serving Fort Greene and Clinton Hill residents. Today, the Times announced a partnership with New York University to launch a hyperlocal site in the East Village. The Local East Village site will be developed by NYU’s journalism faculty and students, and it’s scheduled to launch later this fall. The project will tie into a new class, “The Hyperlocal Newsroom,” which in part will help teach students how to contribute. More details in the press release, which follows below…
NEW YORK, Feb 22, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — NYTimes.com announced today a collaboration with New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute to create a new Local community news and information Web site covering the East Village in New York City.
The Local East Village site will be developed by N.Y.U.’s journalism faculty and students and is scheduled to launch later this fall. Richard G. Jones, an award-winning veteran journalist and former New York Times reporter, will serve as the editor of the site. Mr. Jones will work with students, faculty and the East Village community to cover the news of everyday life in the neighborhood.
Together with N.Y.U. professors Yvonne Latty and Darragh Worland, Mr. Jones will also manage “The Hyperlocal Newsroom,” a course that will allow students to engage in a variety of ways, including reporting and writing for the site. Summer courses will also be available for students of other journalism institutions.
N.Y.U. will coordinate with Mary Ann Giordano, a New York Times deputy Metropolitan editor, on the editorial content for The Local East Village. The site will live on NYTimes.com. The Times is advising on the development of the site by the Carter Institute’s “Studio 20 concentration,” which is taught by Journalism Institute faculty members Jay Rosen and Jason Samuels.
“This collaboration with The New York Times emphasizes our commitment to the highest journalistic standards in providing an innovative model source of news and information about and for our East Village neighborhood,” said Brooke Kroeger, director, the Carter Journalism Institute. “We intend to bring the Institute’s many direct and indirect gifts to the project.”
“We want to continue to expand our network of collaborations, in the New York area and across the country, through associations with individuals, companies and institutions that share our values — foremost, increasing the volume and scope of quality journalism about issues that matter,” said Jim Schachter, editor, digital initiatives, The New York Times. “We think that the journalism program at N.Y.U. is the perfect match for this initiative.”
The Local East Village is one of several collaborative journalism efforts The Times is exploring with news and academic organizations. In March 2009, The Times announced a similar alliance with the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism for The Local Brooklyn site, which serves the residents of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill at NYTimes.com/fortgreene. In Chicago, The Times publishes a local edition with news provided by the Chicago News Cooperative, an independent, non-profit newsroom; later this year, the Bay Area News Project, a San Francisco-based non-profit newsroom, will begin providing news for the Bay Area edition of The Times.
NYTimes.com is the No. 1 newspaper-owned Web site and a top five current events and global news site according to Nielsen Online.
UPDATE: Here is NYU’s announcement.
