Billionaire CEO Joe Ricketts shuts down DNAinfo and Gothamist, including Chicago operations

[bathroommonkey76]

Source: Chicago Tribune

NAinfo, the 8-year-old hyperlocal news website, abruptly shut down Thursday afternoon.

Joe Ricketts, chief executive officer of DNAinfo and recently acquired Gothamist, announced the decision in an online letter to readers.

“I've made the difficult decision to discontinue publishing DNAinfo and Gothamist,” Ricketts said. “Reaching this decision wasn't easy, and it wasn't one I made lightly.”

Ricketts, the billionaire founder of TD Ameritrade, launched DNAinfo in New York City in 2009, “at a time when few people were investing in media companies,” he said. DNAinfo Chicago came online three years later.

Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-dnainfo-shutting-down-20171102-story.html

[bathroommonkey76]

1. This isn't going over well on Twitter

Link to tweet

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https://twitter.com/search?q=%22Joe%20Ricketts%22&src=tren

[OnDoutside]

2. Is this a coincidence, with all the Mueller stuff going on ?

[sandensea]

3. Reminiscent of Gannett's purchase of the Bergen Record shortly after they broke the Bridgegate story

Not coincidentally, they proceeded to lay off most of its investigative staff.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

4. The staff voted to unionize so pRicketts shuts it down.

[Kittycow]

5. Gothamist? Oh no!

I couldn't get it to load the day of the cyclist attacks. Wonder if that's why?

I'm really shocked and saddened. I just liked to read it for the local content. It was so interesting to read about living in NYC and how it is changing.

I can't imagine how upset the Gothamist community is

[Honeycombe8]

6. Never heard of it. ? nt

[melm00se]

8. same here

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. Gothamist has been linked to a lot - type it in the DU search box, you get over 1,000 results

DNAinfo about 600. I knew of Gothamist.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

7. I'm fucking pissed! Best source of local info and free. Fucking piece of shit. Hope

He chokes on his billions.

[snooper2]

10. I guess you could offer to buy the domain names and turn the company around

couple million in seed money might be enough to get you started