The Boston Globe’s effort to cover communities in the region just got a whole lot of help, thanks to students at Boston University. The Globe’s portal, Boston.com has online local sections called “Your Town,” and BU students will now write for the sections.
According to the press release, Tom Fiedler, the dean of the BU College of Communications sees the project as a win-win. “This program offers benefits for both community residents, who gain from increased news and information about their neighborhoods, and our students, who learn journalism by doing it under the guidance of our faculty and Globe editors,” Mr. Fiedler said. Press release after the jump.
PRESS RELEASE
THE BOSTON GLOBE AND BOSTON UNIVERSITY TO COLLABORATE ON “YOUR TOWN” NEWS
“Your Town” will Publish Student Stories, Photos, and Video
Boston, MA, October 12, 2010 – In a new agreement announced today between The Boston Globe and Boston University, BU students will cover neighborhood and town news for Boston.com’s “Your Town” hyper-local websites as part of their studies within the College of Communication. The new program will launch later this fall and will be coordinated by BU professors and the Globe’s editors.
Boston.com currently has 43 “Your Town” sites in and around Boston. “Your Town” sites act as digital town centers, offering a highly localized news experience for readers. Over the past several weeks, Boston.com launched 12 neighborhood sites in the city of Boston and announced plans for more in the coming weeks.
“We’re delighted with this collaboration. It provides ‘Your Town’ readers with even more local coverage and enriches the educational experience of BU’s students,” said David Dahl, the Globe’s regional editor.
Tom Fiedler, dean of Boston University’s College of Communication, said the agreement expanded the school’s commitment to provide students with real reporting experience while supplying in-depth coverage of news affecting the greater Boston area. Students in BU’s journalism department, which has produced 20 Pulitzer Prize winners, also provide daily news coverage to newspapers in Massachusetts and New England through the department’s Washington and Statehouse programs.
“This program offers benefits for both community residents, who gain from increased news and information about their neighborhoods, and our students, who learn journalism by doing it under the guidance of our faculty and Globe editors,” Mr. Fiedler said.
The students’ work will appear in addition to several other sources of content on the “Your Town” sites. The sites feature stories by “Your Town” correspondents, links to area blogs, Globe stories, and user-submitted photos and articles.
“Your Town” was launched in 2009 to deliver an online community experience that allows readers to learn, contribute, and share information about life in their own hometown. In addition to the twelve Boston neighborhoods, the other communities in the greater Boston region include: Arlington, Belmont, Beverly, Braintree, Brookline, Burlington, Cambridge, Danvers, Dedham, Framingham, Hingham, Lexington, Malden, Marblehead, Medford, Melrose, Milton, Natick, Needham, Newton, Norwell, Peabody, Quincy, Salem, Scituate, Somerville, Waltham, Watertown, Wellesley, Weston and Westwood.
Users can access each of the Boston.com “Your Town” sites via the main “Your Town” portal at www.boston.com/yourtown. Residents in towns/cities that are not yet covered are encouraged to request a hyper-local site for their town/city at this portal.