socialmedian: Local NY Bloggers Speak: Why Write, When You Can Aggregate?

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Local NY Bloggers Speak: Why Write, When You Can Aggregate?

Oct 28, 2009

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Lockhart Steele with Jake Dobkin, Jonathan Butler, and Mark Josephson

"300 words, max...anything else, it's an essay." Those were the words of New York blogger Jake Dobkin at last night's panel for The Future of Local Media.

The topic this month was "Local Journalism: What's Cool In Your Hood?" But, the only thing the panelists could seem to agree upon was the more posts, the better -- even when it means the death of any original journalism.

"We write 20 to 24 pieces of content a day," said Jonathan Butler, founder of Brooklyn blog Brownstoner. "And only three of those pieces are original reporting...Picture posts are great."

Dobkin, who founded Gothamist in 2003, was definitely seeking to provoke his audience. When asked about the concept of pay walls for online publications, the young entrepreneur flippantly replied that this would be the best thing for his business. "Have them charge $20 for content! No one else will pay, but we will, and we will steal their stories," he said. "That's my two year plan."

Behind the bluster, Dobkin has a point: Why pay for or

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