Chicago Tribune | Chicago Sun-Times | EveryBlock Blog
After an 11-and-a-half month absence, EveryBlock has returned to the city where it began — but only to that city, Chicago, for now.
Comcast this morning relaunched the popular hyperlocal social site where neighbors share data and crowdsource news. NBC News, which is owned by Comcast, abruptly shuttered EveryBlock last February. It previously had operated in 19 markets.
Adrian Holovaty, the founder who had left the company before the decision to close it, was critical of NBC News and its chief digital officer, Vivian Schiller, for its lack of warning to users and its seeming reluctance to find a buyer. (Schiller has since left NBC and joined Twitter as head of news.)
At the time, Holovaty said Chicago was EveryBlock’s most popular city: “It’s a force of nature in Chicago. It’s a big deal. In other cities, it didn’t get a ton of traction, but in Chicago a lot of people used it.”
Grid, the Chicago Sun-Times business site, broke the news of a return in December, and noted this week that the site is virtually unchanged. A Comcast spokesman told the Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune that it’s unclear how the site will turn a profit.
Previously: EveryBlock could still be sold, says Schiller, after abrupt closing of hyperlocal pioneer | NBC closes hyperlocal, data-driven publishing pioneer EveryBlock
