Andrew Huff, Co-founder of GapersBlock.com, speaks about the Chicago site

Andrew Huff speaks about Gapers Block at DePaul University (Photo by M. Reilley)

Andrew Huff, Co-founder of Chicago based Web site Gapersblock.com, was a guest speaker at a DePaul University Online Journalism class in downtown Chicago on Wednesday.

Huff, who has a Bachelors degree in Journalism from The Ohio State University, spoke about how Gapers Block began as a project evolving from blogging experiences.

Gapers Block was established in April 2003 and it provides a Chicago based information source regarding the who, what, where, and how of the city.

Gapers Block is listed as one of the “best city blogs” in Forbes’ Best of the Web.

The site, initially, was supported by the sales of T-shirt and other novelty items but today, is mostly ad-supported.

But in November 2009, Gapers Block won a grant from the Chicago Community Trust for $35,000 that funded original open reporting.   Gapers Block was one of 12 organizations to be awarded the grant.

Although the site has only a handful of paid employees, most writers contribute voluntarily, according to Huff.

“The majority of Gapers Block writers have a day job that doesn’t inspire them much and so they want to write about cool things that are happening around the city,” said Huff.

Huff’s career began in public relations but quickly made the switch to online reporting/journalism.  Gapers Block provided Huff with opportunities like blogging for companies like American Express and A&E Television and eventually allowed him to move away from public relations.

Huff also has other sites on the side that he likes to work on. One of the sites that stick out the most is Nineteenfiftyfour.org.  Nineteenfiftyfour, as Huff explained, is a site which posts the pages of his diary written in 1993.

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Tags: Andrew Huff, cct.org, chicago, Chicago Community Trust, DePaul University, Gapers Block, Nineteenfiftyfour