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If you grew up reading publications like The Village Voice and LA Weekly, you probably remember flipping through pages and pages of edgy, hyper-local journalism, concert and movie listings, and classified ads of both the romantic and non-romantic variety. But what is the role of the alt weekly in the 21st century, when a lot of these functions have been swallowed up by the internet? And, perhaps most critically, how do these publications make any money?
In today’s episode — after which we’re taking a quick late-summer break — we zoom in on the story of Hell Gate, a subscriber-funded, worker-owned digital news outlet about New York City that is boldly tackling these questions in real time. Launched by a group of five journalists who felt that the city deserved an alt-weekly style publication to fill the void left behind by the Voice, Hell Gate recently celebrated its one-year anniversary, and builds on a growing movement of worker-owned news outlets like Defector Media, Discourse Blog, Racket, and the Colorado Sun.
Hell Gate is delightfully, unapologetically, hyper-local. Stories range from meaty topics like policing, labor organizing, and the most recent bizarre utterance from mayor Eric Adams, to we’re-all-thinking-it niche fare like the confounding nuances of DMV license plate design, weed bodega aesthetics and why people keep seeing gross viral food recipes during their subway commute. There’s even a column devoted to the state of New York’s public restrooms.
Helping Hell Gate chart its path are writer-editors Adlan Jackson and Katie Way, two talented writers who cut their teeth writing for outlets like The New Yorker, Pitchfork, and VICE and are now leading the publication’s arts and culture coverage. They join us to talk about Hell Gate’s origin story, how the worker-owned model works, and what it’s like to run a daily publication about a city with a population of 8 million with just seven people.
We also discuss what happens to arts and music communities when local news organizations disappear; how the role of alternative publications has evolved in the internet era; and how local media helps us touch grass amid the digital dysfunction of contemporary life.
For an LA perspective on reviving local media, check out our episode “Localize It” with Jeff Weiss.
Read more by Adlan, who you can follow here.
“Frost Children and the cruelty of hype”
“Skrillex Week with the Subway DJ”
“As the clock strikes 10:30, Dweller’s reading becomes a rave”
Adlan’s Critical Party Studies Substack
Read more by Katie, who you can follow here
“The tacky weed bodega aesthetic is actually ‘old school’ NYC vernacular”
‘The NYPD is greeting vigils for Jordan Neely with brute force”
Katie’s All Cops Are Posters Substack
Bringing back hyper-local media with Hell Gate