DNAinfo and Gothamist Websites Shut Down by Founder Joe Ricketts After Vote to Unionize

Lower East Side – In a letter to DNAinfo and Gothamist readers dated November 2, 2017, CEO and founder Joe Ricketts states, “Today I’ve made the difficult decision to discontinue publishing DNAinfo and Gothamist. Reaching this decision wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t one I made lightly.” Ricketts went on to say, “progress hasn’t been sufficient to support the tremendous effort and expense needed to produce the type of journalism on which the company was founded.” Read full letter here: https://www.dnainfo.com/

DNAinfo was started in 2009 by Ricketts. Including Gothamist, which was purchased by Ricketts March of 2017, the audience as of recently was in excess of 2 million readers. The shutdown of these publications leaves 115 people unemployed. That figure includes not just journalists but salespeople, developers and other employees as well located in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington DC. Ricketts will begin negotiations with the Writers Guild of America East on Friday the 3rd.