Revived Gothamist Launches Crowdfunding Campaign on Kickstarter

For Gothamist (and DNAinfo), the months-long road back to the internet continues with an abmitious crowdfunding campaign. The fifteen-year-old local news juggernut, acquired by WNYC earlier this year, launched the endeavor yesterday with a stated goal of raising $100,000 for its coffers.

If all goes to plan, Gothamist will relaunch later this spring (possibly in June). As of this morning, the campaign has already raised more than $65,000.

An excerpt from the pitch.

It’s simple: all funds raised with this Kickstarter will go to funding Gothamist. The first $100,000 will help revive the website and bring back our popular newsletter. It will also enable us to preserve the Gothamist and DNAinfo archives. But this is just the beginning. The more we raise, the better we can serve you.

If we raise another $100,000, we’ll be able to deepen our service. With your participation, we will be able to deliver more of the “Best Of” features, more stunning New York photography, more on the mass transit crisis that is messing with our daily lives, revealing more of the city’s extraordinary secrets and essential weirdness.

Gothamist’s mission has not, and will not, change. Even with seismic shifts forcing news outlets to rethink their business models, Gothamist is unswerving in its commitment to New Yorkers. In every city, local news is fast becoming an endangered species as newsrooms continue to suffer from drastic layoffs and budget cuts.

Gothamist and DNAinfo, previously owned by billionaire Joe Ricketts, were both closed down last November after the newsrooms of both voted to join the Writers Guild of America East. The nonprofit WNYC subsequently purchased the archives, domain name, and social media assets in February thanks to funding from two anonymous donors.