The Story of Gapers Block

Gapers Block, founded by Andrew Huff, is a newspaper styled website with a focus on Chicago and named after traffic jams caused by gawking drivers.

Running for seven years and counting, the site boasts more than 80 volunteer contributors, eight paid staff editors and scads of content for arts, novels, food, music, politics and sports. It received a $35,000 grant from the Chicago Community Trust to bolster features on local events. According to Huff, it is rare for a for-profit organization receive such a grant.

However, it wasn’t always this prominent. Andrew Huff, started his blogging career with modest means: a tripod site entitled The Huff Report. As his interest in blogging increased and his dissatisfaction with his public relations job decreased, Huff joined a ring of local bloggers on the website Me3dia, where Huff and his collaborators bounced around ideas that would eventually form Gapers Block.

Founded in 2003, a full year before the official Chicago local blog was made, Gapers Block features a simple layout modeled after the numerous columns of print newspapers, but much more interactive.

The basic design has worked out well and hasn’t been changed much over seven years. Back in ’03 the core design and editing team was comprised of only three members and seven volunteers providing additional content.  Now the volunteer count is over 80 and the paid staff has grown to eight.

Writing for Gapers Block provides a foot in the door for other local journalism jobs as well. One editor writes for the theater section of TimeOut! Chicago and Huff himself writes food critiques for The Lobby.

While Gapers Block once had to rely on T-shirt sales and few ads, it now receives enough revenue to keep the site afloat on just advertisements. The stream of volunteers doesn’t show any sign of ebbing with the perk packages they receive, like free movie screenings, for their help on the site. With Andrew Huff at the helm, Gapers Block continues to excel at its mission of increasing awareness of local Chicago events.

Advertisement