Q&A with Chicagoist's Editor Marcus Gilmer

2009-11-04T17:35:00.000-08:00

Local Windy City Web site Chicagoist.com has grown tremendously since its launch in 2004. The blog-format site, which reports recent events while offering unique insight into local arts and events, food, and other interests, was even commended by the Chicago Tribune as being "One of Chicago's best blogs. Period."

The Chicagoist's editor-in-chief is Marcus Gilmer, whose bio describes a quiet life with his dog in which they "read, write, and listen to Avril Lavigne records all night long". He took over as editor after working for two years on the site. As an English major at the University of New Orleans, Gilmer says that he got his start as a journalist when he contributed to the Chicagoist as a side project from work.

Audio: Marcus Gilmer discusses his restless schedule when working to update the Chicagoist

I was able to ask him some questions about his role as editor-in-chief, as well as the growing popularity of the Chicagoist:

Katie Nelson: So the Chicagoist branches off of the Web site Gothamist.com, right?

Marcus Gilmer: Yes, there is actually a company called Gothamist LLC, and I believe there are somewhere between fifteen or sixteen sites and a couple of international sites. Chicagoist is actually the second site founded in the network, and that was founded in 2004.

K.N.: And when did you become involved as an editor for the Chicagoist?

M.G.: As an editor… a little over a year ago. I took over editor-in-chief in September 2008.

K.N.: What did you do for the site before that?

M.G.: Before that I started as a contributor, and that goes back to about a year [before becoming editor-in-chief]… I wrote mainly about music and a couple of Arts and Events things.

K.N.: Did you work for any Online sites or print publications before that?

M.G.: I worked for my college paper years ago, that must have been about eight years ago during my senior year of college, and I wrote a little bit for an Online site in New Orleans back in 2006 before I moved to Chicago.

K.N.: Were you a journalism Major in College?

M.G.: No, actually. In college I was just an English Major and I got my master’s degree in creative writing.

K.N.: So what brought you upon journalism?

M.G.: Really, I just kind of fell into the job. I began writing for the Chicagoist as a contributor… as something fun to do aside from work, and it just really caught on. I began doing a lot of writing for Chicagoist, and by the time—about a year later—the editor was leaving, she needed someone to replace her and I guess she trusted me, so I just sort of fell into it.

K.N.: What makes the Chicagoist different than most other local news Web sites?

M.G.: I think that the volume of posts we make is pretty high, and I think we have a pretty unique voice in that we are kind of lodged between what people might consider to be journalism and a blog. We do aggregating—so a lot of summaries and linking of news stories—and we do a lot of original reporting as well. We tend to be subjective, which is more traditional for print media… but we have a lot more freedom in that the tone of our writing can be more subjective and critical.

K.N.: Right—and I’ve noticed you go between a lot of hard-news stories and a lot of beat stories like the "Around Town" Halloween piece. Is there one type you enjoy writing more than the other?

M.G.: No… the Food and Arts and Events beats have a lot of original content, and our news is primarily aggregated, but I’d love to get to the point where we can do more original reporting with news. We do get some original news reporting but it’d be great to have a little more of that. I think it’s possible, but it’s going to take some time and effort. As far as what I prefer… I like it all—it’s part of my job. Obviously we can’t cover every story so we’re going to choose stories that appeal to our audience.

K.N.: What type of audience do you find the Chicagoist seems to attract?

M.G.: Ones that like to argue and comment, that’s for sure. We do have demographics available on the site… A lot of users are younger—I think about seventy-five percent of our readers fall between 21 to 35 years of age. We definitely find stories that get bigger reactions than others, that’s for sure.

K.N.: Have you noticed that the Chicagoist’s Twitter account has helped increase user activity on the Chicagoist?

M.G.: Yes, absolutely. That’s really come into play within the last six months or so. Before that, we used Twitterfeed, which automatically feeds links to our posts on Twitter, so it was almost like a robot. None of us were really interacting with that. I kind of changed all that and took over the Twitter, so we’re still putting links up, but selectively. We’re trying to interact with readers via Twitter and follow people back, and we’ve definitely seen that it has affected traffic positively. Twitter is one of our biggest referrals now.

Photo: Marcus Gilmer, courtesy of Chicagoist.com

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Q&A with Chicagoist's Editor Marcus Gilmer