The latest Classified Intelligence client letter hit our inbox, along with the pleasant surprise of an interview contained therein with Curbed president Lockhart Steele, the one-time Gawker managing editor. Steele talked about blogging, and the constant fight for attention, even at his real estate and food blogging endeavor:

Because the blogosphere has become crowded, “the quality of insight gets even more important,” Steele said. Blogging can be a powerful tool to get the pulse of your local market area, he said, but it’s crowded. In other words, be relevant. Be yourself. Know what your clients want to read about and reach out to them. Consider including relevant keywords in blog posts or search-engine optimization.

“Blogging is here, and established. People understand what it is. It’s not a radically different communication tool. It’s not about the blog, it’s what you build with it,” Steele said.

Steele also made an interesting comparison of blogging with traditional journalism, noting how stories are “less researched” on blogs. Instead, the ability to edit a post based on breaking information, and the commentary added by visitors, serve the reader.

Curbed isn’t a straightforward list of housing developments; it’s actually a rather entertaining group of stories in the tradition of Wonkette and Valleywag.  You may realize why upon hearing that Curbed’s founder, Lockhart Steele, used to be the managing editor of Gawker Media.  And Nick Denton, also of Gawker fame, has long given his financial support to the real estate site.

So Curbed shouldn’t be directly affected by a housing slowdown – an ad that suggests readers “Find the perfect NY pad on Trulia.com” would be something of a conflict of interest if it were in that business.  However, if Trulia – or any other advertiser – is affected by a slowdown, it might put less money into Curbed as a result, and this makes the $1.5 million all the more important.

According to Dan Mitchell, Curbed will use the funding to hire new employees and expand into new cities.  Since Curbed currently appears to serve just the New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco areas, that’s a wise move.

The Curbed Network also includes blogs by the name of Eater, Racked, and The Beach.