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.
The site, which ended its run as an NBC property, was one of the Knight News Challenge’s biggest success stories, having proven so successful that it was acquired by MSNBC.com in 2009. Alas, it was not meant to last. The creator, Adrian Holovaty, is well known in the programming community as one of the creators of the Django framework, and EveryBlock, in a lot of ways, was a showcase of what could be done with the framework. I saw Holovaty speak about four years ago, and that NBC News couldn’t find a way to keep this product moving is very sad. :(
EDIT: Poynter has more details on the shutdown. According to NBC News’ Vivian Schiller: “[EveryBlock] is a wonderful scrappy business but it wasn’t a strategic fit with our growth strategy and — like most hyperlocal businesses — was struggling with the business model.” Holovaty is quoted as saying he totally didn’t see the shutdown coming.
OK, this isn’t nearly as sexy as, say, EveryBlock or the Sunlight Foundation. But throwing records of the past decade of crimes online represents a new era of transparency for a famously-guarded city. Or as Brett Goldstein, the city’s chief data officer and former police officer, puts it: “It’s a whole new era of openness and transparency. You determine your own analysis.” And on top of that, EveryBlock could totally plug into this database if they wanted to. Some have been a bit critical of what isn’t in the data — race, for example — but many analysts note that this is more than a lot of cities offer. You done good, Rahm! source
Oh, and check the site over here.
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