Nenf/A conversation with BostonNOW editor John Wilpers
Above left, Dan Kennedy, Northeastern University professor and media blogger, and John Wilpers of BostonNOW, at NENF-Lowell. Kennedy is unaffiliated with BostonNOW.
BostonNOW
Bringing the community into the paper and into the process
My name is John Wilpers. I am the editor in chief of a new free daily newspaper that will launch in Boston on Tuesday, April 17. It is the first of 8-10 NOW newspapers we will be launching across the United States over the next three years.
We are inviting the community of Boston-area bloggers, videographers, photographers and others into the paper, and I would like to talk to anyone who might be interested in discussing how a newspaper can and should work with members of the community with something to share with the community at large.
The issues that other bloggers have raised vis a vis publication in a newspaper include:
• Placement (it will be in the section pertaining to your subject, not a blogger ghetto) • Editing (we won't) • Compensation (eventually — 3-6 months? — determined in cooperation with the bloggers themselves) • Censorship (we would not allow libel and obscenity - and we're working on a definition with bloggers)
In a nutshell:
- BostonNOW will be different from every other major metropolitan daily newspaper in the country.
- BostonNOW will be the most interactive newspaper in the US. We will allow our readers more opportunity for self-expression and community than any existing newspaper in the U.S.
- We will publish bloggers of all types in every section of the newspaper and on our website with the ability to comment on every piece. We will also offer chats with those bloggers (the ones who volunteer) as well as with our own reporters and editors.
- BostonNOW will be transparent, webcasting our news meetings with a simultaneous chatroom to give readers a voice in the content and direction of the paper.
- BostonNOW will publish NEW news that’s relevant to readers' lives instead of old news you already read about on the Internet or saw on TV. Our focus will always remain LOCAL, Boston-area news, much of which we will be the first to report.
- And BostonNOW will deliver unparalleled depth and multi-media richness on our Web site, offering slide shows, video, and audio reports from our reporters and our bloggers from every corner of the city.
- By involving hundreds of voices and perspectives, we will be vastly more reflective of the REAL interests of the city and thus vastly more relevant to readers than any existing publication.
Here are some links to stories that have been written about us:
Our own blog with lots of explanations about how bloggers can get published
