Local news

A whirlwind tour ofBoston’s media scene

Boston Globe

• Founded in 1872• Owned by New

York Times Co.• 380,000 M-F;

560,000 on Sunday• Boston.com

attracts 4.2m users/month

• Link

Boston Herald

• Modern version created in 1982

• Pat Purcell bought from Murdoch in ’94

• 200,000 M-F; 110,000 on Sunday

• Web site visited by 1.2m users/month

• Link

WBUR Radio (90.9 FM)

• NPR plus local reporting staff

• Top 5 ratings in all time slots

• Nonprofit ownership may be a model for future

• Link

New England Cable News

• 24-hour regional television news

• Higher quality than most broadcast news– Two revenue

streams– Viewers are looking

for news

• Part of Boston.com• Link

WBZ radio and television

• Owned by CBS, a longstanding example of “synergy”

• Has retained commitment to quality

• Link to radio(AM 1030)

• Link to television (Channels 4, 38)

WCVB-TV (Channel 5)

• Once the best local newscast in the U.S.

• Decline in quality under corporate ownership

• Still better than most

• Link

WHDH (Channels 7 and 56)

• Local ownership sold out after lack of success

• Miami-based owner introduced flashy graphics, shorter stories

• Link

WFXT-TV (Channel 25)

• Part of Rupert Murdoch’s Fox empire

• Like WHDH, flashy graphics and fast pace

• 10 p.m. news gets big ratings

• Link

Boston Phoenix

• A granddaddy of the alternative press, founded in 1966

• Arts, media, politics and pop culture

• Magazine-style opinion journalism

• Link

Weekly Dig

• Newish competitor to the Phoenix

• Shorter stories, cheekier attitude

• Aimed at younger readers

• Link

Boston Magazine

• Suburban lifestyle monthly

• Revolving door in the editor’s office

• Occasional strong coverage of politics, media

• Link

CommonWealth Magazine

• Published by MassINC, a nonpartisan think tank

• Quarterly journal for policy wonks

• Link

“Greater Boston”

• Only local public-affairs program on public station WGBH-TV (Channel 2)

• “Beat the Press” media roundtable on Fridays

• Link

Free Monday-Friday dailies

• Young readers and subway riders

• Boston Metro is 49 percent owned by the New York Times Co. (link)

• BostonNOW has blog content in print and on the Web (link)

Bay Windows

• Leading paper for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community

• Follows in the footsteps of the Gay Community News

• Link

Bay State Banner

• Covers the African-American community

• Follows in the footsteps of William Monroe Trotter’s Guardian

• Link

Christian Science Monitor

• Based in Boston, but not of Boston

• Successful example of a mostly Web newspaper

• Nonprofit model, church woes create challenges

• Link

Talk radio

• Mostly conservative, appeals to a sense of powerlessness

• Two stations are battling it out for the political talk audience– WRKO (AM 680) link– WTKK (96.9 FM) link

Local blogs

• Universal Hub is a blog of blogs (link)

• Blue Mass. Group is a liberal participatory blog (link)

• Hub Politics is a conservative blog (link)