Columbia Journalism Review; Strong Press, Strong Democracy

CJR's Guide to Online News Startups

Results

Organizations filtered by Massachusetts.

Mar 24, 2011 11:55 AM
CapeCodTODAY.com

A hyperlocal (and entrepreneurial) news pioneer
By Dohini Patel
CAPE COD, MASSACHUSETTS — CapeCodToday, one of the first hyperlocal news websites in the nation, and reports on all things Cape Cod. Topics the site covers include politics, arts and culture, business, education, and sports. Walter Brooks, founder of CapeCodToday, is a veteran journalist with over half a century of experience. Prior to establishing the site, Brooks wrote for The Village Voice, the New...
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Jan 5, 2011 01:35 PM
GlobalPost

A new news agency helping to fill the gaps in foreign reporting
By Dohini Patel
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS — GlobalPost has breathed life back into the foreign news agency business. Philip Balboni and Charles Sennott, two ambitious and entrepreneurial international news journalists, founded the for-profit site in 2009. They say the site sets out to have a distinctive American voice and American style of storytelling while reporting on news from every corner of the world. GlobalPost has complete editorial...
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Jan 4, 2011 01:33 PM
New England Center for Investigative Reporting

Hard-hitting investigations in and around the Boston area
By Colin Fleming
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS — In less than two years and with an annual budget of less than $500,000, the New England Center for Investigative Reporting has taken on the state division of banks and the Salvation Army. They've brought down a high-level public official, and had their work appear in publications across the state and in every medium imaginable. And they've...
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Sep 20, 2011 02:23 PM
Open Media Boston

Boston news and progressive commentary
By Evan MacDonald
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS — About five years ago, Jason Pramas identified what he calls a "metropolitan news vacuum" in Boston. He noticed that local news outlets were focusing more on beats like entertainment and sports than on local issues like labor strikes, social injustice, and community news. At the time, Pramas was a Ph.D candidate in public policy at the University of Massachusetts-Boston with an acute...
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Feb 24, 2012 01:11 PM
Patch (Massachusetts)

AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network
By AJ Hudson
Patch brought its business to Massachusetts in early 2010, launching sites in coverage in Marlborough, Sudbury, Wellesley, Newton, Quincy, Belmont, Bedford, Milton, Needham and Concord. Among its competitors at the time were CentralMassNews.com, and a host of print newspapers that also maintained online presences. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched...
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Feb 2, 2012 11:12 AM
Plymouth Daily News

Hyperlocal news for "America's hometown"
By Caitlin Kasunich
PLYMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS — For almost two decades, editor and publisher Walter Brooks and his family have run online media ventures in several Massachusetts communities. Starting in the early months of 1996, Brooks helped launch the online edition of the vacation guide Best Read Guide/Cape Cod. Just a year later, he started the hyperlocal news site CapeCodToday.com--an early example of the hyperlocal...
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Oct 21, 2011 10:57 AM
The Manomet Current

Hyperlocal news for two Plymouth, Mass. neighborhoods
By Alex Fekula
PLYMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS — In addition to being the landing point of the Mayflower, the birthplace of Thanksgiving, and the home of a notorious rock, Plymouth, Mass. also houses the seaside village of Manomet, a neighborhood within Plymouth proper. Online news source The Manomet Current hopes to provide hyperlocal news for both Manomet and neighboring Pinehills. The site's stated goal is to "tell...
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Jan 5, 2011 03:54 PM
The Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University

The first university-based investigative nonprofit
By Colin Fleming
WALTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS — In 2004, former Washington Post reporter Florence Graves founded The Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University, thereby creating the very first university-based investigative nonprofit. In less than seven years, The Schuster Institute has snatched up more than ten awards and had its work published everywhere from Foreign Policy to Good Housekeeping. It is also one of the few American...
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Jul 25, 2011 04:00 PM
Universal Hub

A wicked smart Boston hyperlocal
By Connor Boals
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS — What started as a simple online directory of businesses, restaurants, and other establishments serving Boston has grown into a full-blown hub of Beantown information. After a layoff prompted him to take his side project full-time, Adam Gaffin set about building Universal Hub into a hyperlocal news hub with an original Boston twist. If you want the day's biggest stories, stick...
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Oct 26, 2011 05:27 PM
Village Soup (Defunct)

A small media chain blends print and digital local journalism
By Lauren Kirchner
ROCKLAND, MAINE — [UPDATE: On Friday March 9, 2012 Village Soup president Richard M. Anderson announced the closure of all Village Soup publications. The statement did not make clear how the closure would affect the nine independent news organizations which use the Village Soup platform under licensing agreements. Anderson was not immediately available for comment. We'll post further updates to this story when...
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Jul 11, 2011 01:18 PM
Watchdog New England

A catalyst for investigative reporting in Boston and beyond
By Isaac Olson
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS — Watchdog New England, the website of the nonprofit Initiative for Investigative Reporting at Northeastern University, aims to revive and strengthen investigative reporting throughout New England's six states--not as a news outlet in its own right, but as an ally to the region's more than eighty daily newspapers and countless weeklies. For now, the site primarily exists as a compendium of links to...
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