The New York Times announced today the launch of City Room (http://nytimes.com/cityroom), a new Metro news blog and online community dedicated to responding quickly to important news and information throughout New York City. Sewell Chan, Times Metro reporter, is the City Room bureau chief and will leverage the unique talent and resources of The Times's one hundred-plus-person Metro staff.
City Room provides online readers with in-depth reports from the five boroughs of the city, as well as occasional reports from the surrounding, suburbs on topics such as government and politics; crime and public safety; schools; transportation; housing and economy; and people and neighborhoods. It will enhance and supplement Metro articles from The Times, offer non-news features about the history and civic culture of the city, and encourage reader comments and discussion.
"City Room is the most audacious online venture the Metro desk has so far conceived and committed to," said Joe Sexton, metropolitan editor, The Times. "The name of the site is a nod to our past and the time-tested methods of good reporting, which Sewell employs with such formidable skill - asking tough questions, digging up documents, burning shoe leather. But as City Room evolves, Sewell will constantly experiment with new ways to engage readers, and we expect that it will become increasingly informative, expansive and entertaining."
"NYTimes.com is increasing its commitment to serving the online needs of our New York metropolitan readers," said Vivian Schiller, senior vice president and general manager, NYTimes.com said. "Editorial offerings such as City Room and UrbanEye will be the cornerstone of more robust offerings to come."
City Room features:
- Expanded selection of The Times's photography
- Frequent Web videos with a fresh take on the news
- News profiles on neighborhoods and social trends
- Links to primary sources
- Original documents and Web resources, including other blogs
- Forums for reader comments and discussions on New York City issues
In the months ahead, City Room will also host Q. and A. sessions with newsmakers and Times journalists, where readers will ask the questions, and there will be continual experimentation with multimedia.
Mr. Chan joined The Times in 2004 and has covered transportation and City Hall. He was previously a staff writer at The Washington Post, and has also worked for The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Wall Street Journal. A native of Manhattan, Mr. Chan graduated from New York City public schools and from Hunter College High School, part of the City University of New York. He is the son of Chinese immigrants who settled on the Lower East Side in the 1970s, before moving to Brooklyn and then Queens. The first in his family to complete college, he graduated from Harvard University and received a master's degree in politics from Oxford University, where he was a Marshall scholar.
NYTimes.com is the most visited newspaper site in the U.S. with an audience of 12.8 million unique users (May 2007 - Nielsen//NetRatings).
The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT), a leading media company with 2006 revenues of $3.3 billion, includes The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe, 15 other daily newspapers, WQXR-FM and more than 30 Web sites, including NYTimes.com, Boston.com and About.com. The Company's core purpose is to enhance society by creating, collecting and distributing high-quality news, information and entertainment.
This press release can be downloaded from www.nytco.com and www.nytco.com/community
