• New York Times, Wednesday, December 15, 2010 10:12 AM

This is one of those stories that you better read -- and fast -- because the trend it describes is nearly passé by the time you get to the end.

The gist is that large corporations that are looking for new stories (of the selling variety) have taken to looking for them among Brooklyn's tiny entrepreneurs with insider knowledge and they are finding success to varying degrees.

An example: a national print ad for Ford's Edge introduced the managing editor/partner of Brooklyn Based, an emailed newsletter, who forecasts national trends such as "gourmet canning" and "the art of urban farming." To which the Village Voice blogged "Brooklyn Now Co-opted by Ford and the Gap."

The "real deal" is what customers, and now the big companies, want out of Brooklyn. Yet these small start-up businesses are busy just being start-up businesses and many of them won't sell out anytime soon.

Read the whole story at New York Times »