For the record, I do not count The New York Times ending its New Jersey version of The Local and passing over its readers to Baristanet as a failure. The idea that The Times could have owned and run a blog with a journalist in every town and neighborhood in New York — let alone America — simply didn’t scale. The more important skill for The Times to learn is working with networks of independent entrepreneurs who own and run their own local enterprises. That’s what will scale. So I say this is a step forward. (Disclosures: CUNY, where I teach, is running The Local in Brooklyn.)
Byline
by Jeff Jarvis