When Hell Gate launched a month ago, we pitched it as a trial run. We wanted to find out if there would be interest in a worker-owned news outlet that would cover New York City's politics and culture through an adversarial and playful lens. Now that Hell Gate has concluded our first month of operations, we're taking stock of what we've done, (and with apologies to the Harper's Index), crunching some numbers:
64: Number of articles published by Hell Gate to date, a number deemed by observers as both "too few" and "unsustainable"
5: Co-publishers of Hell Gate, who still like each other despite outrageous accusations of journalistic malpractice being hurled at one another
10: Cent plaza, New York’s most insufferable "neighborhood"
2: Number of Hebrew National hot dogs consumed by Jayson Buford while assessing the scene at Yankees Stadium
2: Times the New York Post, with its infinite resources, has either turned a Hell Gate story or a tweet by a Hell Gate editor into a re-reported New York Post article
2: Times the New York Post has properly and prominently credited Hell Gate for said story or tweet
1: Times the New Yorker published a story eerily similar to a Hell Gate story, even down to the same headline
0: Times the New Yorker, with its infinite resources, credited Hell Gate
1: Times the New York Times neglected to credit Hell Gate for breaking the story of a police lawyer fraud scandal despite clear warning of the consequences
55: Amount in dollars for a single pass at the Russian & Turkish Baths
1,000,000,000: Years, give or take, of New York City's geological existence, harvested for energy by Mayor Eric Adams
27: Percent that Eric Adams has lost of his first three paychecks, after he announced that he would convert them to cryptocurrency
2: Installments each of OnlyFins and Meet a Worker Co-op, Hell Gate's recurring columns focusing on fishing and worker cooperatives
4: People, at least, who have made eye contact with Hell Gate co-publisher Esther Wang, prompting stress and incredulity
4: Number of times the former Rikers Island watchdog Serena Townsend cursed in her eye-opening interview with Hell Gate
13: Skate Kitchen members profiled by Edwina Hay upon their triumphant return to Brooklyn
15: Amount in dollars for a nutcracker, leading Hell Gate to investigate the possible causes behind nutcracker inflation
62,000: People who read Hell Gate co-publisher Nick Pinto's exclusive story about the NYPD breaking a Brooklyn grandmother's arm after she tried to get a lost property report
2: Blog posts about rats (surprisingly low)
2: Blog posts about dogs (surprisingly low)
4: Number of adolescent mutant turtles whose first feature film is NYC canon, as persuasively argued by Mychal Denzel Smith
5: Number of Modelos necessary to endure the Inner Circle's dress rehearsal
6: Amount in dollars Hell Gate will soon charge for monthly subscriptions (let us know how that sounds?)
1: City in the world, baby! Numbah one, New York City, let's gooooo!
As you can tell from the math up above, this all adds up to a successful first month for Hell Gate…so we're going to keep going!
Over the next few weeks, we'll be making some exciting announcements, including about our new website platform, a paywall (don't worry, it'll be great), and how we're going to operate as a worker-owned media company. Emboldened by the outpouring of support, we're convinced that Hell Gate is on the right track, and that we can be the digital alt-mag you've always dreamed of.
We'll keep you updated, but please, until then, enjoy the blogs, tell your friends, and keep the story (and monetary) tips coming. (And let us know about any toilets we should review.)
From Hell Gate to you,
Hell Gate (Christopher Robbins, Esther Wang, Max Rivlin-Nadler, Nick Pinto, & Sydney Pereira)
