Today is a sad, sad day for local journalism. As of 5pm, both DNAinfo and Gothamist have been indefinitely shut down by owner and businessman Joe Ricketts. Both sites’ archives are currently down, with all past content redirecting to a message on DNAinfo’s domain from Ricketts explaining that, “DNAinfo is, at the end of the day, a business.”
The entire staff of both publications have been laid off, putting 115 journalists out of work, according to the New York Times.
Ricketts, a longtime Republican donor and Trump-supporter, had previously said he would shutdown DNAinfo should staffers unionize. A week ago, they did, but there’s no mention of the union issue in his goodbye message. Just money.
While none of either publication’s articles are currently available via the surface internet, fear not – you can find the archives in the Wayback Machine.
Strangely, the URL for Ricketts’ message includes /pfizer-affordable-housing-jewish-hispanic-ethnic-tension.
Well, folks, here’s to journalism. Now everyone go buy a reporter a drink.
You can read Ricketts’ message, and nothing else, on both websites.
View Comments (1)
Did anyone else see this coming?
Personally I had just experienced the first article about my equal education Kickstarter in DNA Info a week ago, and was wonderfully thankful for the publicity as my project affects NYers. So it was quite disturbing to see such a wonderful purveyor of NYC news suddenly shut down.
I hope these journalists find a new outlet for their stories.
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