What’s Happening at DNAinfo

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I go to bed every night, and I wake up every morning, thinking about how to build relevant, enduring businesses that address some unmet need. It’s one of the things that makes life fun for me.

And for some time now, I’ve been thinking a lot about DNAinfo.

DNAinfo connects people through the communities where they live and work. We do this by reporting on fun and fascinating neighborhood news stories on DNAinfo, and by creating vibrant, virtual communities on Neighborhood Square. And we do it without spin.

Unpuzzling this important space – a space that exists at the intersection between people who live in neighborhoods and the businesses that serve them – is an irresistible challenge to me.
This week, DNAinfo introduced a new logo that speaks to the company’s partnership with neighborhood communities. Neighborhoods are alive and vibrant, and our new logo reflects our continued belief in the power and promise of neighborhoods.

If you live in Chicago or New York, check out DNAinfo. If you don’t live in one of those cities, stay tuned.

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Good News from the Windy City

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Very exciting news today from DNAinfo.com, our award-winning neighborhood news site that will soon be launching operations in Chicago. As part of its mandate to field the best team of local journalists around, DNAinfo.com Chicago has hired Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Mark Konkol, a veteran newspaperman whom one local press critic describes as a genuine “Chicago journalism superstar.” Konkol joins DNAinfo.com’s team of 20 full-time local Chicago reporters – which is more than the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times Metro staffs combined. You can read all about Konkol and DNAinfo.com’s plans for Chicago HERE.

Spotlight on DNAinfo.com

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A terrific article recently posted on Capital, a New York-based media-news site, talks at length about how DNAinfo.com, “with its frequent scoops and more nimble approach to breaking news,” is making waves and has its “competitors…in a sweat” in the country’s biggest and most important media market. You can read it here. Among other things, the writer notes that I often talk about how proud I am of what the team at DNAinfo.com has accomplished. He sure has that right.

DNAinfo.com wins six New York Press Club Awards

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Rather than breaking news, our first-rate editorial team at DNAinfo.com made news this week, notching six wins at this year’s New York Press Club Awards – more than any other news outlet, except for the Associated Press, which also won in six categories. Among the work honored was DNAinfo.com’s innovative Crime & Safety Report, the groundbreaking reporting on the NYPD ticket-fixing scandal by our veteran investigative journalist Murray Weiss, Amy Zimmer’s continuing coverage of mismanagement at the National Arts Club, and our team reporting on Hurricane Irene. Given that the Press Club Awards drew entries from 58 news organizations, including some of the nation’s biggest and most established media brands, DNAinfo.com’s big win is a great accomplishment. I couldn’t be prouder of the team.

DNAinfo.com was the first outlet to break Madam Gristina story

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I’m so proud of the team at DNAinfo.com for their great work breaking important stories in the news capital of the world.  Case in point — they beat out the entire New York news media, including all the major dailies and every TV and radio station, to break the story on Madam Gristina. Hyper-local reporting is the future of journalism and this shows why it works.

Full story: Capital New York: After beating both tabloids to the tale of Madam Gristina, DNAinfo has the ‘News’ and ‘Post’ in a sweat