I'm blogging for Gawker

So I have left the Business Times and am writing for Gawker, a blog about media and pop culture. My last day at the Business Times was Jan. 19; my first day at Gawker started last night (Sunday).

You can read some of my initial Gawker posts here (the ones with my name in the lower right corner, mixed in with other peoples' posts).

Gawker is based in New York but I will be based at home in Berkeley, working an evening shift to get a jump on the next day's news.

I've long been an admirer of Gawker Media CEO -- and now Gawker Managing Editor -- Nick Denton, and this opportunity was too good to pass up. Still, I'll very much miss covering the hospitality beat at the Business Times, not to mention the East Bay. (I'm writing so many individual goodbye emails that I'm still sending them out; should probably just put everyone in a mass email already.)

I apologize for the long break in posting; I was busy interviewing and preparing for this gig and did not want to say anything until it was official.

In about three months time I'll probably start looking for freelance magazine work here and there (hospitality-related, hopefully) to flex my long-form writing muscles; if you know of any opportunities, please email me!

People have asked me what is going to happen to Covers. Here is the answer:

I'm going to keep writing Covers. Hospitality is a beat I'm going to keep following, and I'm going to have something to say on a regular basis. But it probably won't be on a daily basis, especially over the couple of months.

The best way to read Covers is along with all the other great restaurant blogs in this town, like SF Eater and Tablehopper and Bauer and your favorite food blog, in an RSS "feed reader" like Google Reader. A feed reader lets you read a bunch of different sites on one page, and it makes it a lot easier to follow sites that update sporadically.

If you've been sending me tips, the good news is that I can now post them up immediately, because I don't have to hold anything for the Business Times ;-) I promise, if you send me something good, I will get it up within an hour of seeing your email.

A tech note, you'll have to access Covers through sfcovers.com. Right now, you can also get here through ryantate.com, but I'm turning ryantate.com back into a truly personal homepage.

Thank you to everyone who has read this blog, offered words of encouragement or helped educate me about the biz.

I posted photos from my honeymoon online.

Covers is back from honeymoon

Obviously. Expect occasional half-baked observations regarding my three weeks in France and environs (Paris->Lyon->Provence (Lourmarin)->Pyrenees (near Prades)->Barcelona) for roughly the next month. They will be tagged "France" and kept relatively free of Serge Gainsbourg references.

Also, thank you to everyone who visited and provided feedback (via comments and votes) on my Knight Foundation grant application. It has advanced to the next stage of the NewsChallenge competition, meaning I have to draw up a more complete proposal by the end of the month.

Read my Knight News Challenge entry (and even vote!)

I have applied for a grant in the Knight News Challenge, a lively contest to improve the news media through digital publishing.

My idea is CityPipeline.com, a Web hub for news and information on local real estate development. CityPipeline is basically a local real estate map that you can filter, search and add information to.

For each project, the map can or would eventually include:

• stage in the development "pipline" (in planning, approved, under construction)
• new leases
  
• building sales
• city council votes
• planning commission votes
• links to news articles
• links to blog entries
• related documents
  

I have a rough prototype running at sfpipeline.com (IE or Firefox, no Safari yet), which looks like this:



It's sort of a Bloomberg terminal for local real estate, but on the Web and free.

Read all about it on the Knight News Challenge site.

If you have a few minutes, vote on the project too (click next to the stars; you have to create an account but it only takes a minute).

'Je vais et je viens'

I am finally going to France, with my wife, for my honeymoon, right now!

I solemnly swear not to post pictures here of any plated food, markets, patisseries, cafes or streetscapes. Or, uh, anything.

I have to go now because apparently I am, as of this moment, blogging during my honeymoon, which is so not awesome.

See you some time after October 25.

Personal: New year's resolutions

This post is not about restaurants or hotels.

A personal blog is a perfect place for New Year's resolutions, though, so here are mine:

• Swim at least 3x/week at the Y
• Master flip-turns
• Complete my fourth Alcatraz Sharkfest swim
• Start going to yoga class regularly
• Stay relaxed about the wedding by staying focused on what we want, not what I think others expect
• Complete at least two enterprise stories in the Business Times that would be of interest to Covers readers
• Complete my GTD weekly review every Thursday morning
• Process email and mail into GTD completely every day

Last year my resolution was to swim 3x a week at the Y, spin 3x a week at the Y and lift weights 3x a week at the Y. I do spin 3x a week, but I do weights only 2x a week usually and swimming 1-2x.

Honored by publicity club

The San Francisco Bay Area Publicity Club has named me "Best Bay Area Business Reporter" at the 2006 Pubby Awards (see the nominees). Thank you!