BostonNOW!

I was "invited" by Regina O’Brien, BostonNOW's Web Content Manager, via Twitter, to attend their Boston Bloggers Summit. Although I wasn't 100% sure on what I was getting myself into going there, I decided to drop by. I assumed it was just a convention for any and all bloggers who live in Boston to network and get to know each other.

While it might sound like a command, and on the coattails of the death of the namesake band's lead singer this weekend, apparently there's a new newspaper in town.

Or there will be soon! Despite their future home still just being a placeholder, they are already making preparations for the publication's debut.

Unlike a regular newspaper, BostonNOW will incorporate traditional (think AP Wire) and citizen (think bloggers with actual writing potential) journalism. According to John Wilpers, BostonNOW's Editor, this publication will be a tabloid style newspaper released 5 times a week.

The idea is newspaper readership is falling among younger readers; well, more plummeting like a rock than falling; and I've long had the speculation that if the traditional newspaper doesn't change to accommodate the times, it might go the way of the floppy.

It's no secret that readership among the youth of America is slowing down, but Boston still has 2 of the top 100 newspapers in circulation in the United States, #15 the Boston Globe, and #53 the Boston Herald according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

From talking to John, I found out that they are still ironing out some critical issues, i.e. how do they decide which stories will be showcased in the front page, how will people be paid, hell, I'm not even sure how many bloggers they actually have signed up to submit content, but it looks like they might be on to something here.

I'm not one to jump on the band wagon (yeah, right), but free publicity and syndication? Sounds like a good deal to me. I hope to be able to hear more about this from the people running it and get a better idea as far as the final business model and the technology behind it.

There is plenty of room for them to run around, let's just see how they cope when they run into the proverbial "wall" with any number of issues.