Gapers Block (webzine)
Encyclopedia
Gapers Block is a Chicago
-centric web publication focused on covering Chicago culture under the tag line: “Slow down and check out Chicago.” The site, gapersblock.com, lists local events, aggregates other Chicago blogs and news of local interest and features many topical blogs: A/C (arts and culture), Drive-Thru (food related), Transmission (local music), Mechanics (state and local politics), Tailgate (sports coverage), and Book Club (book club and literary scene coverage).
and the Metroblogging
network were also founded in 2003.
The site is written by volunteers from various backgrounds and professions.
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
-centric web publication focused on covering Chicago culture under the tag line: “Slow down and check out Chicago.” The site, gapersblock.com, lists local events, aggregates other Chicago blogs and news of local interest and features many topical blogs: A/C (arts and culture), Drive-Thru (food related), Transmission (local music), Mechanics (state and local politics), Tailgate (sports coverage), and Book Club (book club and literary scene coverage).
History
Conceived in 2003 by Andrew Huff and Naz Hamid, the stuck-in-traffic themed section names, such as Merge (blog, links aggregation), Slowdown (calendar event listings), and Rearview (noteworthy local photos), are inspired by the Chicago-coined term, "gapers block", a traffic jam caused by motorists slowing down to check out an on-the-road accident. The site was the first city blog in Chicago and one of the earliest examples of the genre; GothamistGothamist
Gothamist LLC is the operator of eleven city-centric blogs worldwide that focus on news, events, food, culture, and other local coverage.-History:...
and the Metroblogging
Metroblogging
Metroblogging is an online local media project founded by Jason Defillippo and Sean Bonner now owned by Sean Bonner, Jason DeFillippo and Richard Ault, collectively Bode Media, Inc. Started in Los Angeles in November 2003, the project currently includes 57 city-specific blogs around the world,...
network were also founded in 2003.
The site is written by volunteers from various backgrounds and professions.
Accreditations and awards
- It was named a "Forbes Favorite" in ForbesForbesForbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
.com's Best of the Web directory, in the category "Best City Blogs." - Web design site, Typesites credits Gapers Block’s aesthetics, “well-crafted layout” and noteworthy typography.
- Chicago Community Trust awarded Gapers Block $35,000 in an effort to boost new sources of local news and information and “increase the amount of neighborhood-based, original local coverage ... with priority given to stories about underserved communities and issues that affect them.”
- The Chicago Sun-TimesChicago Sun-TimesThe Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
in 2009 named the Gapers Block Book Club the #2 best way to find romance in Chicago. - Gapers Block Editor and publisher, Andrew Huff was listed in Crain’s Chicago Business’s “40 Under 40” in 2009.