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NYC bound

By Howard B. Owens

Shortly I'll be on the road to Buffalo to catch a flight to New York City.

While I'm gone, breaking news will be covered by Billie and WBTA.

I return Sunday.

In NYC, I'll be the guest of the New York Times and New York University for an event called the "Hyperlocal Conclave."

"Hyperlocal" is this made-up word that all of the news industry uses now without really understanding what it means to describe news sites like The Batavian. I think what we do is just good, old-fashioned -- the way newspapers used to do it -- local journalism. But it's such a radical concept -- to concentrate coverage on just one community, even though it's very old school, that the industry had to give a name to the business model.

The Batavian is unique among "hyperlocal" news sites in that it actually makes money -- not a lot, but we keep food on the table and a roof over our heads. There's only a handful of other sites in the United States that can make the same claim. So, when these conferences come up, I periodically get invited to talk about how and why we can get sponsorships from, say, more than 100 local businesses.

Obviously, I'm proud what what we've done with The Batavian and continue to be grateful for the support of the community, readers and advertisers. Thank you.

While in NYC, my short stay will be concentrated in the area around NYU, which I think is Greenwich Village/Soho -- an area of the city that I've never seen much of before.

Brian Schollard

Seems like every one has to have a new way to describe something that is already there.
I like Local Journalism. I have never heard anything but positive feedback for you or this site. That goes for yesterday too wile you were at the accident scene. To every one at The Batavian,, keep up the good work and thank you. Enjoy your trip Howard and be careful of the people "reaching out to you" ;-)

Jul 8, 2011, 8:37am Permalink
Dave Olsen

Congratulations Howard. I wish you a good trip. As Alan mentioned above, NYU, I believe is not far from "Little Italy" some awesome eating there. Great Italian Restaurants and lots of notorious history.
Story: Around 1975, my sister lived in North Jersey and my brother and I drove down to visit for a few days during Christmas break. Her and her husband drove us around NYC for a little sight-seeing. I wanted to see Umberto's Clam House in Little Italy because that's where Joey Gallo got hit in 1972. As we are sitting at a traffic light within sight of Umberto's, the back door of a van a few cars ahead of us bursts open and a guy sitting on a folding metal chair gets launched out into the street. The van doors shut and it takes off. The guy jumps up off the street and takes off running. No idea what it was about, but we had fun making up the story.

Jul 8, 2011, 9:46am Permalink
Jason Crater

If you're a Dylan fan, make sure you walk thru Washington Square...I'm pretty sure it's the location of his first public performance.

Lots of bums sleep on the steps there now.

Greenwich Village is a lot of fun too and nearby NYU.

Jul 8, 2011, 11:20am Permalink

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