The Chainlink

(NBR) Every block shut down.

Not a big poster on it but what happened?

http://chicago.everyblock.com/

We’re sorry to report that EveryBlock has closed its doors.

It’s no secret that the news industry is in the midst of a massive change. Within the world of neighborhood news there’s an exciting pace of innovation yet increasing challenges to building a profitable business. Though EveryBlock has been able to build an engaged community over the years, we’re faced with the decision to wrap things up.

Thank you for having let us play a role in how you get your neighborhood news. Thanks for the contributions, for the questions, and for allowing us to connect you to each other, in many cases to make great things happen in your community. Along the way, we hope we’ve helped you be a better neighbor.

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Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on February 7, 2013 at 4:33pm

The way it was handled leads me to suspect legal trouble of some sort, but I'd also be very interested to know the story.

Permalink Reply by S on February 7, 2013 at 4:45pm

I think MSNBC decided to stop spending money on everyblock.  It's weird that they shut it down without warning though.  The owner did piss the knight foundation off when he sold it to MSNBC shortly after the knight foundation's 1.1 million grant expired.

Permalink Reply by Tony Adams on February 7, 2013 at 4:48pm

MSNBC had already sold it or somehow otherwise transferred it to NBC. It was NBC that pulled the plug, not MSNBC. 

Can you cite a source for the Knight Foundation being upset about the sale to MSNBC? This is the first I've heard of such a thing. 

EDIT: MS and NBC parted ways apparently and NBC ended up with EveryBlock. See: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/07/nbc-shuts-down-hyp...

EDIT 2: According to this http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/10/knight-foundation-rethinks-its-sta...  the foundation wasn't upset, but understandably tweaked or are tweaking their policy in the aftermath of the EveryBlock sale.


S said:

I think MSNBC decided to stop spending money on everyblock.  It's weird that they shut it down without warning though.  The owner did piss the knight foundation off when he sold it to MSNBC shortly after the knight foundation's 1.1 million grant expired.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on February 7, 2013 at 4:49pm

The suddenness of it does seem rather odd. I share Howard's curiousity about the reason, wondering if legal issues factor into the unannounced, instant demise of this useful news resource.

Permalink Reply by MK on February 7, 2013 at 5:14pm

Everyblock got acquired by msnbc back in the day which got acquired by NBCNEWS which decided to pull the plug. Not sure why, exactly. Here's a blog from the founder: http://www.holovaty.com/writing/rip-everyblock/

Permalink Reply by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on February 7, 2013 at 5:47pm
That sucks.
Permalink Reply by Duppie on February 7, 2013 at 6:05pm

This is what happened:

"Increasing challenges to building a profitable business"

Simple economics, if you ask me.

Permalink Reply by Mike Zumwalt on February 7, 2013 at 6:39pm

 I guess attempting to build relationships or making your 'hood safer needs to be profitable.

The more you know.

Permalink Reply by globalguy on February 7, 2013 at 7:00pm

A big lesson here for the future of all on-line, privately hosted "communities" ...

Permalink Reply by Tony Adams on February 7, 2013 at 7:24pm

Julie,

Please do not sell the Chainlink to MSNBC.

thanks,

Tony

globalguy said:

A big lesson here for the future of all on-line, privately hosted "communities" ...

Permalink Reply by S on February 8, 2013 at 8:12am



Tony Adams 6.6 mi said:

EDIT 2: According to this http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/10/knight-foundation-rethinks-its-sta...  the foundation wasn't upset, but understandably tweaked or are tweaking their policy in the aftermath of the EveryBlock sale.

If the Knight foundation was cool with it, they probably wouldn't have looked into policy changes that would allow them to recover their grant money. Behind the scenes, I'm pretty sure that they were not superhappy that their grant essentially got turned into free angel investor funding.

Permalink Reply by Apie (11) on February 8, 2013 at 8:46am

The issue was money.  It wasn't profitable and they were putting money into it. 

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