"Your Town" sections on boston.com

[masswich.livejournal.com]

With the demise of the City weekly, Somerville's news coverage is at risk of being greatly diminished, particularly on the regional level. There are sections on boston.com for various cities, though right now they are mostly Metrowest ones. Apparently you can request they create a "Your Town" page for any city, and if they get enough requests they might do it. Much of the coverage on those pages is just culled from the existing paper, but it does appear that having a "Your Town" page does increase the number of local stories that boston.com does.

You can request a "Your Town" Somerville page by emailing them at yourtown@boston.com. A sample Your Town page is at:

http://www.boston.com/yourtown/newton/

Comments

[ron_newman]

Starting tomorrow, Somerville is supposed to be part of Globe North, which is published Thursdays and Sundays. I don't expect much from this, since GlobeNorth covers about 100 hundred towns and cities, some of which are in New Hampshire.

We'll share it with Medford, but not with Arlington (which gets Globe West instead) or Cambridge (which was not assigned to any new regional zone at all).

[ron_newman]

I was thinking of posting a Rupert Murdoch buys and merges Globe, Herald story on Universal Hub, but Adam Gaffin said he'd rather report on other people's April Fool hoaxes than originate his own.

[fefie.livejournal.com]

I'd rather have City Weekly back than YourTown Somerville. Won't YourTown Somerville be sort of like the online Somerville Journal (WickedLocal)?

I emailed one of the City Weekly editors last Fri after hearing him on that RadioBoston show about the future of local news reporting (on paper, online). He said their immediate plans are to roll out more suburban YourTown sites, then eventually they'll consider Cambridge or Somerville.

Globe coverage

[david-dahl.livejournal.com]

Hi everyone. I'm the editor of the Globe's regional sections, including Globe North. Ron Newman urged me to post here to explain our plans for Somerville.
As you know, Somerville will now be covered by Globe North. We had a Somerville story on the cover of Globe North Thursday.
Danielle Dreilinger, who covered Somerville for City Weekly, wrote the story that appeared in North Thursday. I'm sure she would be happy to hear from you if you have story ideas.
We have more Somerville based stories to come to come. And you also probably saw the page one story about local congressman Michael Capuano.
Obviously, our approach will be different than it was when Somerville was covered by City Weekly. But I assure you that we remain passionate about local coverage. I will be happy to hear constructive suggestions from you about our coverage of Somerville and other communities. You can reach me at dahl@globe.com
Thanks for your interest and your comments about City Weekly and the Globe.