Bob Guskind

I didn't know Bob Guskind. I went to his memorial service on Saturday afternoon in Park Slope thinking about the future of media in Brooklyn and was touched by the service. He made a difference in the lives of scores of people who spoke eloquently during the service. Many of them had never met Guskind personally but had written or taken photographs for his blog, Gowanus Lounge. Guskind had the ability to champion small blogs and stories, lifting them out of obscurity and dropping them into the cacauphony of cyperspace chatter. These writers felt relevant, exploring neighborhood subjects that newspapers sometimes miss in a new and evolving medium. And they are relevant. Reporters would often swoop through Gowanus Lounge to pick up interesting stories to pour into the news cycle. Guskind's death will certainly leave an enormous void in local news coverage in Brooklyn, but the number of blogs is growing. Finding a financial model to sustain online journalism as more readers are shifting to the Internet for their news coverage remains a significant challenge and a greater worry. We may be in the age of fraudcast news, or at least the last 30 seconds of that Simpsons episode where all the characters start printing their own newspaper. Some of us are already there.

The Short List

*It has been a busy past couple of weeks with lots of interesting stories throughout the region. Not all things are budget related, though state legislators are busily working to pass a budget before Easter. I still can't get over Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson coming back to vote for the budget on Tuesday despite being admitted into the hospital with walking pneumonia. And now we have video.

*Back in Brooklyn, NAG met last Thursday for its quarterly town hall forum updating members about upcoming projects. Keep an eye on the transportation group, which could see some significant developments now that the State Senate has more power to negotiate pieces of the MTA budget plan. Senator Dilan wants to take a ride on the G Train to look at what areas of the line need improvements. Calling Transportation Alternatives! Or at least fire up the bat signal for Community Board One's Teresa Toro?

*New Kings Democrats is poised to hold the second gathering and first debate of the 33rd Council candidates. Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats is holding the first forum on April 20th. It is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, April 28th at Harry Van Arsdale School, but they are still waiting on one candidate to confirm. Interestingly, the group is coming to terms with some of their popularity, as representatives from Councilwoman Diana Reyna's office, Brad Lander, Walter Mosley, a possible backer of Delia Hunkley-Adossa, Council candidate Evan Thies, and others attended the last meeting.

*Also in the works is a Request for Proposal to paint murals on India Street organized by Councilmember David Yassky's office and the Open Space Alliance. Rami Metal, a constituent liaison with Yassky, put this together and hopes to form a coalition of North Brooklyn artists. Joanne Kim reports from Greenpointers.

*Speaking of OSA, East River State Park will house a variety of summer programming, including concerts from JellyNYC, the same group that brought concerts to McCarren Park Pool. Ben Muessig from the Paper has the write up, Juliet Linderman of the Gazette with the break, and the Times drastically reducing its story from the City Section and scuttling it to its artsbeat blog. The Times should have ran their longer story anyway and it could end up costing OSA some additional sponsorships. I'm hoping some of the issues involved will blow over and the events take off successfully this summer.

*PosterBoy is coming to Eastern District, a new gallery/ boutique on 43 Bogart Street, right next to Ad Hoc Art. The gallery opens at 7. Get there early, less we have a repeat of the Shepard Fairey inident in Boston last month.

*On Saturday morning, Council candidate Jo Anne Simon is opening her campaign office in downtown Brooklyn. I just want to point out that The Greenpoint Gazette facebook group has 89 friends whereas Jo Anne Simon's City Council facebook page has only 85 friends. You'll never catch us, Jo Anne, never!

*Also on Saturday, friends of Bob Guskind, Brooklyn's preeminent blogger, will come together at 2 PM at the Brooklyn Lyceum to mourn his loss. RSVP here.

*Finally, there's this. Hopefully all parties take this as a balanced article but that may not happen. I'm just happy to be done with it.

Go Huskies!

Brooklyn Courier Life Paper

I got a call from the Times' Greg Beyer earlier this week for this article appearing in the Sunday Times tomorrow. Greg usually writes about intriguing outer-borough stories for the City Section, including this well-trafficked semi-obituary for the iconic Bob Guskind. Assemblyman Joseph Lentol, of Greenpoint and Williamsburg, has some interesting opinions too about the Brooklyn Paper buyout on March 10, but it looks like his thoughts are cut off in the piece.

If it were an article primarily about Newscorp and their business decisions, it would have been written by Tim Arango and gone in the Business Section. Instead, the article is about the future of the Brooklyn Paper and what it means for local print journalism. The New York Observer printed another piece about the deal, sparked by the Weintrob's sale, though oddly, no one from Courier Life is quoted or even referenced.

My old publisher is optimistic that the chain of papers will survive, whatever form they take. The hyper-local news at the Courier and the Brooklyn paper do probably will, but they must figure out how to be relevant online in order to continue to grow. That will be the real challenge, consolidation or not. I just hope Newscorp moves away from the sentiments expressed by Arlene Morgan, an associate dean at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism at the end of this article, quoted below:

Small papers have ''a very low end on production costs, and the rate of return is very high,'' she said. ''Neighborhood advertising is a big draw, it's more important than content, and it's going to help their bottom line overall.''