Part of the fun of going away to college is the opportunity to learn all about a new town or city. For many college graduates, even those who have moved away after they finished school, their college town will always hold a special place in their hearts.

One group of students that probably enjoys getting to know their new town more than most are those over at New York University, located in Greenwich Village, one of the hippest and trendiest neighborhoods in New York City. The university has, among many other world-renowned programs, an excellent journalism program. This program is about to get even better, considering the fact that the New York Times is giving some talented students a lucky break by hiring them to cover the local Village beat.

The Local East Village is a new website that features—you guessed it—hyper-local news that is happening right where NYU students live, study, and have fun. The site will launch this fall as a joint effort between the Times and the Arthur L. Carter Institute at NYU. Students will report and write on the daily happenings in the East Village. If you are an aspiring journalist, then you’ll know this is one cool byline to have on your resume.

In a time when newspapers and magazines have taken a direct hit in a flailing economy, there are some critics who say that the Times is not helping matters by using unpaid student labor to launch a new money-making initiative. I can certainly understand where this negative response is coming from, as I have sadly watched content at the newsstand diminish over the past several years. Still, I’m choosing to focus on the positive here, which is that these lucky NYU journalism majors are going to get a chance to be published writers well before they graduate.

–Barbara Bellesi