NYC’s neighborhood blogs
A look at the websites real estate pros rely on for hyperlocal news
W BY JANE C. TIMM
ith many newspapers focusing on city and national news these days, an army of bloggers have taken to hyperlocal reporting, covering everything from new restaurants to community board meetings. Over the past few years, neighborhood blogs have become increasingly crucial sources of local news, not just for residents, but for real estate professionals, too. “Any broker who is not reading their local blogs is doing themselves and their clients a huge disservice,” said Jacob Goldman, founder of the Lower East Side–based brokerage LoHo Realty. In particular, blogs have “become very important in covering harder news that
comes up at community meetings,” said Jonathan Butler, the publisher of Brownstoner, a hugely popular blog that focuses on Northwest Brooklyn. “Decisions about any number of quality-of-life issues that come up at these meetings can have a great impact on locals, and much of it would go unreported without the neighborhood blogs.” Few of these bloggers are professional writers or reporters, and even fewer are paid. Instead, they are activists, professionals and residents who are passionate about chronicling the goings-on in their communities. This month, The Real Deal looked at some of the city’s most popular and influential neighborhood blogs to find out how they got started and what kind of real estate news they’re covering.
Brownstoner (www.brownstoner.com)
Neighborhood: North Brooklyn Founded: 2005
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t’s a long-proven fact that there’s no money to be made in neighborhood blogging,” Butler said, “so the blogger has to be doing it for the love of the game.” Brownstoner — far and away the most influential of the city’s neighborhood blogs and one of the most successful when it comes to advertising — is profitable enough to employ three people: Butler, full-time editor Emily Nonko and freelance managing editor Cate Corcoran. Founded by Butler in 2005 while he was working on Wall Street, Brownstoner covers all of Brooklyn, but tends to focus on Northern and “Brownstone Brooklyn.” The site specializes in real estate news: developments, open houses, listings and neighborhood trends. Butler said the site gets more than 300,000 unique visitors per month. “It’s the focus on real estate that makes it a viable business,” Butler explained in an e-mail to TRD. The real estate emphasis has made it a must-read for industry people working in Brooklyn, who therefore view it as a smart advertising decision. “Everyone tries advertising in different sources, but Brownstoner really gets the most juice out of it,” said Jeffrey Schleider, managing director of the brokerage Miron Properties, which has offices in Manhattan, Brooklyn and New Jersey. Brokers say Brownstoner’s “Listing of the Day” feature can make a huge difference in the price and speed of sale. Prudential Douglas Elliman broker Dena Driver said one of her clients had bid on a house in Clinton Hill and was in the process of negotiating the price when Brownstoner featured the property. “The owner stopped negotiations and said, ‘We’re going to show it for another week and get a highest and final offer,’” she recalled. Driver’s client eventually got the house, but had to submit a higher offer to compete with the other bids prompted by the Brownstoner post. 50 October 2012 www.TheRealDeal.com
From left: Dave Gustav and Elie Perler, cofounders of the Lower East Side blog Bowery Boogie at the new Coleman Skatepark on Pike Street.
Bond New York broker Shana Allen said she is a “religious” Brownstoner reader, noting that the site helps her “predict which neighborhoods are going to be hot next.” And while the site itself may not be hugely profitable, Butler has demonstrated that there is money to be made through the connections and fame that can come from blogging. In addition to Brownstoner, he also runs the enormously popular Brooklyn Flea in Fort Greene and the Smorgasburg food market in Williamsburg. “The flea market business is a much better business than blogging,” Butler said. Additionally, Butler has tried his hand at real estate development, converting 1000 Dean Street into an artist workspace with a beer hall and artisanal food court. “Certainly, it’s helpful being at the nexus of a lot of information flow with Brownstoner, to be aware of potential
investment and development opportunities,” he said. “And having the site to write about them periodically certainly doesn’t hurt either.”
EV Grieve
(www.evgrieve.com)
Neighborhood: East Village Founded: 2007
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enned by an anonymous East Village resident, EV Grieve is one of the city’s most-read neighborhood blogs. The site snagged the Village Voice’s 2010 award for the Best Neighborhood Blog, and covers everything from lost pets to retail; EV Grieve was the first to report that neighborhood institution the Mars Bar would close, for example. Averaging 10 posts a day, the blog does not sell advertising, according to the site’s founder, who identifies himself only as “Grieve.” While the site lists a few contributors, most posts are written by the
founder himself, though he said he gets lots of help from a small army of tipsters. Grieve told TRD in a phone interview that the site gets around 300,000 unique visitors per month, and that he tries to document the area’s constant development and change with a balanced view. “When Kate’s Joint opened 17 years ago, people were saying, ‘There goes the neighborhood!’” he said, referring to the vegetarian restaurant on Avenue B. “When it closed, they said, ‘I can’t believe Kate’s Joint is closing!’” Brokers working in the East Village said they look to the site’s retail coverage for tips. “Grieve will write, ‘Hey, it’s a Tuesday, this restaurant isn’t open and hasn’t been for three days, maybe it’s closing,” said Schleider. “They have that news before anyone else, and we represent restaurant owners, so we try and get our customers in those spaces quickly.” PHOTOGRAPH FOR THE REAL DEAL BY CHRIS MARTIN www.TheRealDeal.com March 2012 00