Newspaper & Mailroom
Boston.com Expands “Your Town” Community News Sites to Six Additional Towns in Greater Boston
Tuesday 02. June 2009 - Online Hyper Local Program Expands to Hingham, Malden, Medford, Melrose, Norwell and Scituate
Building upon the success of its “Your Town” community sites in Newton, Needham, Waltham and Wellesley, Boston.com announced today the launch of six new community sites in greater Boston: Hingham, Malden, Medford, Melrose, Norwell and Scituate. The new “Your Town” sites will provide comprehensive town news and information, and access to local resources and Web sites, providing residents a digital front door to their community.
Each new “Your Town” site presents information from multiple media-sponsored and user-sponsored sources. Residents can conveniently scan all relevant news items about their town and click to the relevant source for the whole story. Each site also houses comprehensive event listings, as well as community, school, recreation, civic and local business information. Discussion boards and blogs are also important features of the sites.
Robert Kempf, vice president, product, Boston.com, stated, “The immediate success of Boston.coms Your Town program in our original four pilot towns supports our decision to expand our network as planned. We are excited to begin serving the South Shore as well as the Malden/Medford/Melrose areas.”
Boston.coms “Your Town” sites offer:
Local news from The Boston Globe, plus links to news and information from local bloggers and other relevant local sources.
“Things to Do” calendars with listings for each community.
Town correspondents providing focused town news and community engagement.
Discussion boards, local blogs and a wide array of user-generated content.
“Guide to Your Town” with information about community services, schedules, issues and history.
High school sports with a “sports scorer” and features about players, teams, schools and sports.
“See, Click, Fix” – interactive maps that can be used to report potholes, dangerous intersections, broken street lights and other civic problems.
Comprehensive directories of town businesses and services.
Death notices.
Traffic alerts that provide local commuting and public transportation information and traffic alerts.
“The sites enable us to reach deeper — and on a daily basis – into the communities that we’ve covered for years in The Boston Globe’s regional sections. We’re providing news about town salaries, sports teams, arts exhibits, and goings on around town, and readers are telling us they are delighted to get the coverage,” said David Dahl, the Globe’s regional editor.
Each of the Boston.com “Your Town” sites can be accessed via the main “Your Town” portal at www.boston.com/yourtown.