Though it's hard to believe, it has been a mere ten months since we flipped the switch and Hell Gate first opened its fearsome maw. When we launched, we had a notion that there was something missing in New York's media ecosystem, that maybe there was a niche for a publication that was owned and run by journalists, that covered New York City with love and rage and a sharp editorial voice. We had no idea if anyone agreed with us, but we were determined to find out.
Less than a year later, the people have spoken: You love Hell Gate. But yours is a demanding sort of love: You want more Hell Gate.
And so, like some adorable arachnid monstrosity, juddering and spasming through its molt, we grow.
And what growth! First off, we're bulking up our full-time editorial team by 50 percent, with two more writer-editors:
Adlan Jackson is a culture reporting powerhouse whose talents have up until now been spread across Pitchfork, the New York Times Magazine, Study Hall, the New Yorker, and his eminently bingeable newsletter Critical Party Studies, among other places. If you were wondering why that Morning Spew about jazz venues a few weeks ago had so much extra fizz and crackle, well, the Walrus was Adlan.
Katie Way comes to us from VICE, where she was a senior staff writer reporting on politics, drugs, celebrity, cops, the internet, and everything else that gives the world its peculiar present shape. You may also know Katie from her excellent newsletter about the fertile overlap of law enforcement and social media, All Cops Are Posters.
We are also, to our joy and great relief, bringing on a full-time business manager, Nadia Tykulsker. Nadia has deep experience bringing order, structure, and financial sanity to unruly organizations, ranging from arts nonprofits to electoral campaigns. Nadia is helping us figure out how to turn a tiny passion project created by a handful of friends into a sturdy institution that stays true to its voice and mission even as it grows and mutates. But naturally, her priority will be expanding our marketing of Hell Apes across multiple levels arranged vertically with Hell Gate at the apex in a sort of pyramid shape.
Yet more big news: For those of you who prefer your Hell Gate administered via the auditory canal, we're about to launch the weekly Hell Gate Podcast. Guided by ace producer Lauren Vespoli (whom you may remember from her excellent look back at Bensonhurst's Punk Temple), we are crafting episodes full of fresh Hell Gate kontent: interviews, field reporting, deep dives, expert panels, and the stories behind the stories.
All of this means that the Hell Gate engine is going to be running hotter than ever before. If you're not already a subscriber, but you believe in what we're doing, now is the time to tell us with your $6.99/month that we're not wrong, this thing we're doing has value, and that journalism has a future outside of private equity and capricious billionaires and the Mark Zuckerberg Philanthropic Fund for Keeping Journalism on Life Support So I Can Continue to Drink Its Blood.
Subscribe to Hell Gate today!
