By Amy Zimmer
DNAinfo News Editor
GRAMERCY — A newly-launched hyperlocal food blog offering the skinny on the eclectic food scene in the East 20s is not only an exercise in how to eat well but on how to practice sustainable journalism.
East 20s Eats is a project of Baruch College's Department of Journalism and the Writing Professions. It focuses on eateries around the college's Lexington Avenue and East 25th Street campus.
The site has already included write-ups about the first U.S. outpost of Taiwanese import CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice, a preview of the arrival of Ralph's Italian Ices, from Long Island.
The journalism department envisions the blog as a revenue generating and community building endeavor.
It was one of many projects funded by a $1 million grant from the Harnisch Family Philanthropies, which also included building a state-of-the-art multi-media journalism lab and developing high school journalism, news literacy and other "future of journalism" related collaborative projects.
"Whether someone is in the East 20's to live, work, study or shop, food is something that could potentially engage everyone," Geanne Rosenberg, professor and founding chair of Baruch's journalism department, wrote in an email. "Everyone buys food and everyone eats. Also, the East 20's happens to have a tremendous array of restaurants and food businesses."
College journalism programs across the country have been delving into hyperlocal reporting. NYU works on "The Local," covering the East Village with the New York Times. Berkeley has three hyperlocal sites.
Baruch's experiment, which Rosenberg said will last for at least another year, differs from others in its specific food subject focus.
They selected the East 20s simply because that's where their school is, Rosenberg noted, "and because it's such an incredibly diverse area in terms of the people who live, work and study here and in terms of the many institutions that exist here — from street venders, to mom and pop businesses, to educational institutions, to the headquarters of Weight Watchers International, to New York Life, to courts, to Credit Suisse."
In developing the site, the department engaged the community through focus groups and meetings with advisors from local restaurants and food-related institutions, Rosenberg said.
With the site still in its infancy, the department is developing ways for its students to contribute, journalism professor Vera Haller explained.
At present, two student interns do the bulk of the stories and video editing, while other students contribute on a story-to-story basis. One professor is writing a series on food items found in neighborhood thrift stores, Haller explained.
"The site is a vibrant project that serves as a resource and learning tool for the department," she said.
Readers can also contribute content to the site, which is based on the Word Press blog platform, BuddyPress.
"We’re hoping for many types of editorial contributions, provided the accuracy and quality of that content remains high," Rosenberg said. "Whether the site will be sustainable is something that remains to be seen. We'll have to see how it goes over the next year."
