I don’t want to diminish the importance of the news about Saturday’s explosion and subsequent discovery of a second devise in New York City and others in New Jersey since.
But this screen shot — showing Wicked Local Newton’s home page taken on Monday morning — is not what I’m looking for when I visit my hometown newspaper’s web site.
All of the WickedLocal sites recently underwent a major redesign. Let’s hope this isn’t an indication of it’s future. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of news sites will cover this story better.
Newton is what the TAB does best and our city can’t afford to lose this valued watchdog and platform.
No, it’s not. This, from the Globe, is what we’re looking for:\
The main in the Sweet Tomatoes crash has been arraigned.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/massachusetts/2016/09/19/driver-fatal-newton-sweet-tomatoes-crash-due-court/svkhwW5Y6n4WPoLD1QKf6K/story.html
Couldn’t agree more. And I don’t think there’s a chance it’s going to get better. It’s a cheaper strategy for GateHouse to run one story across multiple sites than to have localized sites.
The online TAB is already lost. Can’t undo the “wickedlocalling.” Counting on Village14 to step up here.
@Yuppe Scum: Village 14 can provide a place for people to talk about Newton but we’re all volunteer and have no resources to provide reporting. Communities need professional journalists to cover the news and to hold our municipalities and leaders accountable.
I agree with Greg.
With no disrespect intended to the seriousness of that (NYC) story, and, on a happier and more local topic, we are having a Village Day in Newtonville next Sunday. Here’s an announcement from my fellow Newtonville Area Councilor, Joy Huber. (Unfortunately the accompanying picture does not appear).
Celebrate Newtonville Village Day
Sunday, September 25, noon to 5:00
In the heart of Newtonville,
Walnut St. closed from Highland to Newtonville Ave
Great activities:
· Continuous entertainment on two Stages
· Food Trucks
· Children’s activities including a bounce house
· Street fair with vendors, cultural organizations and information booths
Joy Huber
[email protected]
I agree completely, I’m very bothered by this taking precedence over important city reporting.
As it is, we already have a situation where important boards, commissions, and community meetings sometimes have zero reporters at them. The last thing we need is to see the loss of limited resources devoted to city government reporting.
The TAB/Wicked Local overall is a pretty lame paper for a city of 85,000 people. As I travel around New England, I always pick up the local papers, and marvel that towns a fraction of the size of Newton have better, more thorough coverage, even in this era of newspapers in decline. Though I think that Andy Levin is perhaps the best editor the TAB has had in years, you can’t cover a city the size of Newton with only 2 or 3 reporters. As a result, there is only a handful of news articles and the rest is 3rd party submitted listings/updates and syndicated filler. After I finish reading the TAB each week – a five minute exercise – I’m always left with the feeling of “Is this all there is going on in Newton?”
I’m sure Andy would be thrilled to have 2 or 3 reporters. He has one full time reporter and shares a second with another paper.
To be clear, we were not pleased with the override of local news with coverage of the NYC bombings. I take the blame for not noticing Sunday that it had appeared so prominently on the site. On Monday morning, we were able to tinker with the site and move the national news to a more appropriate location. As for the local coverage, we do the best we can with the staff we have, which is 1.5 reporters. Fortunately, Jonathan Dame has been both an outstanding investigator and a terrific writer. And Laura Lovett has been a welcome addition.
Bryan: even if I had another fulltime reporter, I probably wouldn’t be assigning coverage to all the meetings you refer to. You are a “political junky” (and I say that in a nice way); many of our readers are not. I think we have done a pretty solid job covering the important issues, sometimes after a meeting has taken place. This includes your Charter Commission.
Ann: Thanks so much for the compliment (hear that Marti?). As far as reading the TAB in five minutes… well, you must be a super speed reader!
@Andy: Thanks for the response and for your ongoing commitment to keeping Wicked Local local.
Hey, what did I do? Haven’t even commented but feel the need to now.
I think Jonathan Dame does the work of 2 reporters, including great photography. He keeps up with most important meetings, including live tweeting. I like his interactive maps. He also freely uses the FOIA.
I also enjoy Laura Lovett’s articles. Obviously Andy, you have a lot to do with all of that. Great Job. I can read it quickly too – but that’s because of it being so short on news I’m interested in.
Andy, just because I mostly disagree with your editorials or editorial style, doesn’t mean I don’t think you run a decent paper. Now can you get my email newsletter back. I miss it.
I was just pushing your buttons Marti. Thanks
Consider them pushed.
Still want my newsletter.