Gapers Block (Gapers Block Media, LLC) was a

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

-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 synonym (with "gapers' delay") for

rubbernecking Rubbernecking is a derogatory term primarily used to refer to bystanders stopping previous activity to stare at accidents. More generally, it can refer to anyone staring at an object of everyday interest compulsively. The term ''rubbernecking'' ...

. The site was the first city blog in Chicago and one of the earliest examples of the genre;

Gothamist ''Gothamist'' is a New York City–centric blog operated by New York Public Radio. From 2003 to 2018, Gothamist LLC was the operator, or in some cases franchisor, of eight city-centric websites that focused on news, events, food, culture, an ...

and the Metroblogging network were also founded in 2003. The site is written by volunteers from various backgrounds and professions, with content organized into topical sections, including arts & culture, literature, food, music, politics, and sports. In 2010, the cookbook ''The Everything Cast Iron Cookbook'' was published, based in large part on author Cinnamon Cooper's "One Good Meal" column on Gapers Block. In December 2015, editor and publisher Andrew Huff announced the site would be going on "indefinite hiatus" on January 1, 2016.

Accreditations and awards

* It was named a "Forbes Favorite" in

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

.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-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...

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. * David Schalliol, Brian Ashby, Dave Nagel, Akemi Honga and Natalia Echeverry were the recipients of the Peter Lisagor Award for Best Use of Features Video for
The Area
in 2014. Jason Prechtel was a finalist for the award for Best Individual Blog Post, Independent for �
Ventra’s Parent Company: An International History of Fare Card Glitches
the same year. * The site was named Best Local Blog in the

Chicago Reader The ''Chicago Reader'', or ''Reader'' (stylized as ЯEADER), is an American alternative newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. The ''Reader'' has been ...

's "Best of Chicago" poll in 2013, 2014 and 2015Chicago Reader - Best of Chicago 2015 - Best Local Blog
Accessed June 24, 2015.

Notable contributors and alumni

* Danny Fenster, journalist * Anne Elizabeth Moore, freelance journalist, artist, and author *

Nilay Patel Nilay Patel () is an American editor and blogger who has been editor-in-chief of technology news website ''The Verge'' since 2014. Education In 2003, Patel earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Chicago. In ...

, editor-in-chief of

The Verge ''The Verge'' is an American Technology journalism, technology news website headquarters, headquartered in Lower Manhattan, New York City and operated by Vox Media. The website publishes news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, cons ...

References

External links

Gapers Block website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gapers Block Online magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 2003 Defunct magazines published in Chicago Local interest magazines published in Chicago Magazines disestablished in 2016