NYU's Charm Offensive Extends To Broke East Village Journalists

This week the NYU monolith startled New Yorkers with plans to expand its already sprawling campus by 40% over ten years. Now, the university, in collaboration with the Times, is looking for East Village locals to edit an upcoming local news website that will probably be as unwelcome as a new hi-rise dorm.  The Local East Village should go live this summer, with an official launch in the fall. NYU's journalism faculty and students will develop the content. But NYU affiliates aren't eligible for the interim editor spot, which might take broke writers off the unemployment rolls for a few months before the consulting gig ends October 31st.

EVGrieve has the scoop on the job criteria, which includes:

Local knowledge: You live in the East Village and have lived there for a minimum of three years (East River to Broadway, 14th to Houston Streets.) You know the neighborhood intimately.

Independence from NYU: You are not an employee of NYU, or in a consulting role for any other division of the University.

Web literacy: You have a good command of web journalism and are comfortable with its forms and requirements.

But will LEV (might want to rethink the acronym, guys) steal turf from other East Village microbloggers the way NYU has gobbled up real estate? Jeremiah's Vanishing New York, EV Grieve, Bowery Boogie, Neither More Nor Less and The Lo-Down already have the neighborhood beat down to a block-by-block science.

The good news is the project allows aspiring journalists to prepare for a life of poverty in a dying field without leaving a campus that extends to Abu Dhabi. But East Villagers prone to paranoia will probably be ready to denounce the site as a mouthpiece for the university as it tries to assuage neighbors frightened by the encroaching Ivory Tower-ization of their district.

(Photo Courtesy of Lost)