Jake Dobkin
Born
Jacob Dobkin

New York City, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
EducationColumbia University (BA)
New York University (MBA)
Occupation(s)Journalist, publisher, author
EmployerNew York Public Radio
Known forCo-founding Gothamist

Jacob "Jake" Dobkin[1] is an American journalist, blogger, author, and co-founder of Gothamist. He is currently a director of New York Public Radio.[2][3]

Biography

Dobkin is a native of New York City and grew up in Park Slope, Brooklyn.[4] He graduated from Stuyvesant High School, attended Binghamton University, and graduated from Columbia University in 1998.[5][6] He also received an MBA from New York University Stern School of Business in 2005.[7]

Dobkin worked as an IT consultant when he co-founded the blog Gothamist in 2003 with his Columbia classmate, Jen Chung.[8][9] He left his job to work for the blog full-time in 2005. In 2007 and 2008, he and Chung were named one of "New York's coolest tech people" by Business Insider.[10]

He once criticized The New York Times prior to a panel with media critic David Carr, calling the paper's “old-fashioned reporting” out-of-touch with a younger generation of readers.[11] New York magazine and Gawker claimed that his comments sabotaged the company's supposedly successful acquisition by James L. Dolan's media company Cablevision.[12][13][14][15]

In 2017, Gothamist was purchased by DNAinfo, founded by conservative billionaire Joe Ricketts, and Dobkin was kept to run the blog.[16][17] Ricketts shut down the site in November 2017 after writers voted to unionize.[18] WNYC announced in 2018 that it has pooled the resources to buy the blog and hired Dobkin and Chung.[19]

In 2013, he started a column called Ask a Native New Yorker, and adapted his columns into a book of the same name that was published in 2019.[20] He is also a photographer of street art and urban landscapes.[21][22]

References

  1. ^ "Jacob Dobkin". Gothamist. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  2. ^ "Gothamist Is Back From the Dead, Thanks to Public Radio". Observer. 2018-02-23. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  3. ^ Mullin, Benjamin (2018-02-23). "Gothamist to Relaunch After Sale to WNYC". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  4. ^ Kensinger, Nathan (2019-05-23). "'Don't ever leave': A native New Yorker reflects on four decades in NYC". Curbed NY. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  5. ^ Grieve. "Q&A with Jake Dobkin, co-founder of Gothamist and author of 'Ask a Native New Yorker'". Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  6. ^ "Take Five with Jake Dobkin '98". Columbia College Today. 2019-04-24. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  7. ^ Tanzer, Myles. "Has Gothamist Changed New York?". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  8. ^ "The Eyes of Gotham". Columbia Magazine. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  9. ^ "INTERVIEW: Gothamist's Jake Dobkin on answering New Yorker's burning questions in his latest book". 6sqft. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  10. ^ SAI. "69. Jen Chung, Jake Dobkin". Business Insider. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  11. ^ Thompson, Derek (2010-02-04). "No, More Blogs Would Not Save the New York Times". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  12. ^ "Gothamist Founder And Blogger Jake Dobkin Slams New York Times". Mediaite. 2010-02-02. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  13. ^ "Voice Editor Ortega to Kamer: 'Stop Apologizing for Writing Such a Great Dick Joke'". Intelligencer. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  14. ^ Rovzar, Chris. "Gothamist Sale Falls Through". Intelligencer. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  15. ^ Tate, Ryan. "Gothamist Founder May Have Tweeted His Way Out of $5 Million". Gawker. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  16. ^ Rosenberg, Eli (2017-03-08). "DNAinfo Buys Gothamist, With Plans to Merge Local Websites". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  17. ^ "The Story Behind the Unjust Shutdown of Gothamist and DNAinfo". The New Yorker. 2017-11-15. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  18. ^ Newman, Andy (2018-02-23). "Gothamist Will Publish Again in Deal With WNYC". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  19. ^ Kelly, Keith (2018-02-23). "WNYC radio says it's bringing back Gothamist". New York Post. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  20. ^ "New York doesn't have to be that hard—just ask Jake Dobkin | Brooklyn Based". brooklynbased.com. 2019-05-08. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  21. ^ "Manhattan Carves a New Subway, Part 1: Jake Dobkin's Underground Photo Essay". Core77. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  22. ^ "Web App Tracks Graffiti Artists In Urban Areas, Popular Neighborhoods To Tag". The Chicagoist. Archived from the original on 2017-11-06. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
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