IvyGate
 | |
| Web address | www.ivygateblog.com |
|---|---|
Type of site | Blog |
| Created by | Chris Beam and Nick Summers |
| Launched | 2006 |
Alexa rank |
 521,999 (April 2014)[1] |
| Current status | Active |
IvyGate is a blog and online news source covering news and gossip at Ivy League universities. The site is written and edited by students and recent graduates.[2]
History
IvyGate was founded in 2006 by Columbia University alumni Chris Beam and Nick Summers.[3] The blog covers the "follies" of Ivy League schools, such as a Princeton University class president accused of setting a squirrel on fire, a University of Pennsylvania graduate student who turned out to be in prison, and a Yale Skull and Bones member arrested for burning an American Flag.[4]
IvyGate rose to prominence through its investigative reporting of the details of the "Impossible is Nothing" Internet meme, concerning an impossibly boastful video résumé produced by then Yale student Aleksey Vayner.[5][6][7] It was a nominee for the 2006 Weblog Award for "Best Educational Blog".
A minor controversy arose in December 2006 involving Beam's father, prominent Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam. The younger Beam had covered a Brown University professor who wrote prolific letters to the editor in the New York Times. Five days later the elder Beam covered the same story in his column, without attribution, leading to humorous but well-publicized complaints of plagiarism.[8]
Beam is currently a reporter for the online magazine Slate, and his fellow Columbia graduate Nick Summers is a reporter for Newsweek magazine.
The site was run by J.K. Trotter and Peter Jacobs, now at Gawker and Business Insider respectively, in 2012-2013.[2] In 2013, it was run by Bijan Stephen.
Today
IvyGate continues to receive nationwide attention. The site is currently run by Alexandra Svokos. It has been updated less frequently in recent years than in the past, with only six posts in the first four months of 2015.[9]
The blog was the first to publish results of the US News and World Report 2007 college rankings.[10] It also recently broke the scoop on the disbanding of a Yale fraternity,[11] and broke the Pi Phi Rush Guidelines controversy at Cornell. Adam Clark Estes, a former editor at IvyGate, was criticized for making fun of the death of a Cornell student who had died due to swine flu in 2009.[12] It employs reporters and commentators throughout the Ivy League, though reporting is sometimes viewed as somewhat favoritist.
References
- ↑ "Ivygateblog.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2014-04-01.
- 1 2 ""Meet IvyGate, the Scourge of Ivy League Plagiarists."". Poynter. October 8, 2012. Retrieved 2013-02-19.
- ↑ Sharon Wang (November 8, 2006). "15 Questions with IvyGate". Harvard Crimson. Retrieved 2007-10-02.
- ↑ Chris Beam and Nick Summers (June 6, 2007). "Blogging the Ivy League’s Follies". the Harvard Crimson. Retrieved 2008-08-29.
- ↑ McGrath, Ben (2006-10-23). "Aleksey the Great". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2007-07-05.
- ↑ Kaplan, Thomas (2006-10-25). "Vayner faces public criticism". Yale Daily News. Retrieved 2007-07-05.
- ↑ Michael J. de la Merced (October 19, 2006). "the Resume Mocked Round the World". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-07-05.
- ↑ Michael Calderone (December 3, 2006). "Washington Post class gets graded". New York Observer. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
- ↑ IvyGate http://www.ivygateblog.com/. Retrieved 11 May 2015. Missing or empty
|title=(help) - ↑ Jen Chung (August 16, 2007). "Good News, Bad News for Columbia". The Gothamist. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
- ↑ Thomas Kaplan (July 9, 2007). "Beta chapter loses national affiliation". Yale Daily News. Archived from the original on 2007-08-26. Retrieved 2007-08-09.
- ↑ http://michellemalkin.com/2009/09/13/huffpo-editor-mocks-death-of-cornell-university-swine-flu-victim/