Into the Budget Dungeon
Today, Gotham Gazette unveils the second of its news games: The Budget Maze. With challenges and a dash of humor, the game presents an entertaining way to educate New Yorkers about one of the eternal...
View ArticleNYC Police Deny Press Passes to Online Reporters
The New York City Police department, which issues (or refuses to issue) press passes and identification cards, has denied credentials to at least three on-line reporters we know of, including Gotham...
View ArticleGovernment Data: File Not Found
Earlier this month the district attorney in Albany, New York, released thousands of pages of documents related to his investigation of a scandal involving former Gov. Eliot Spitzer. This goes back to...
View ArticleReporting for Games
Much of the discussion about online games focuses on the technical issues, and that's not surprising since the technical aspects make a game a game or a simulation and not a conventional story. But as...
View ArticleHow Gotham Gazette Used Games as Storytelling Devices
With the launch of its energy game Switch, Gotham Gazette this fall completed a two-year Knight Foundation-funded project to create several news games about New York City policy issues. We think we...
View ArticleAdvertisers Still Prefer Print to Online
A rare bit of good financial news for journalism points once again to the difficulty of financing online media. PaidContent reported this week that Politico raked in more than $20 million last year,...
View ArticleHow Gotham Gazette Redesigned a Decade-Old Website
Gotham Gazette, our website about New York City policy and politics, unveiled its redesign recently. (Please take a look and let me know what you think by emailing grobinson at gothamgazette.com). For...
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Councilpedia Uses Crowdsourcing to Link Money, Politics in NYC
As Gotham Gazette gears up to launch a pilot version of its Knight-funded Councilpedia project, we are confronting a number of interesting issues. To step back first, though, Councilpedia will provide...
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In Search of a Wiki with Track Changes
Most of us have become so used to being able to do so much online that is comes as a surprise when we want to do something and can't find the tools to do it. That's the situation confronting the Gotham...
View ArticleCouncilpedia In Private Pilot, Overcoming Tech Challenges
Over the last several months, Gotham Gazette has made major strides on its Councilpedia project, which will help New Yorkers keep tabs on their local officials and share their knowledge with others....
View ArticlePushing the Limits of What a Wiki Can Do with Councilpedia
Barely two decades into the digital age, we take online media for granted. So much is so easy and convenient -- at our fingertips -- that we can forget technology can only do so much. Then we come up...
View ArticleThe Challenge of Attracting Traffic in a Post-Loyal Era
Back in the early days of websites -- way back, a decade ago -- there were far fewer publications on the web than there are today, of course, and many people read them as they had read print newspapers...
View ArticleCouncilpedia Follows the Money in New York City Politics
More than two years since the idea first began buzzing in our collective brains, Gotham Gazette finally launched its Councilpedia site last week. Councilpedia, funded in part with a News Challenge...
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Councilpedia a Hit with New Yorkers, But Not Politicians
It's been a month since Gotham Gazette launched its Councilpedia project to monitor city elected officials and track money in local politics. (To read our earlier entry on Councilpedia, go here.) In...
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Does Social Media Really Boost Traffic?
It's clear that social networks have become a new kind of Holy Grail in the quest to build web traffic. What seems less clear is what all the tweeting, Tumblr-ing and Facebook posting is designed to...
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