In response to the numerous e-mails I've gotten but haven't had time to respond to, that headline pretty much sums it up.

From every indicator, BostonNOW was heading in all the right directions. Circulation was shooting upward and revenues were following. Since I took over the reigns at the Web site just over a month ago, some plans had made it live . . . just not my favorites.

Then the investors from Iceland quit paying the bill. I don' t know much about that.

But I do know that the people who worked at BostonNOW are among the best anywhere. They tried hard every day. The sales people embodied a mantra that CEO Russel Pergament touted regularly: "We don't sell advertising, we sell ideas."

From news to advertising, everyone had ideas. And they were firing them off as quickly as they could. I suppose I should be proud that our last paper included the launch of one of my ideas. Actually, it was me and a great promotions guy, Chris Nugent, who came up with it.

"Say anything." If you have something to say, and 300 people agree it's worth printing, then we will give you 300 words in print. All you have to do is get those 300 people to sign a copy of BostonNOW as if it were a petition.

The goal was to virally market BostonNOW by convincing regular folks to promote the paper via word of mouth -- that's the holy grail of marketing.

Just took a couple weeks and the idea went from our mouths to a graphic artist and into print. That's the kind of turnaround this industry needs. Obviously, I wish the paper never closed, so then at least we'd know what kind of response the campaign generated. I wish we could have seen the response to a lot of our ideas in the hopper. But what's worth remembering now is that BostonNOW had the type of people who were open to ideas and ran with them.

Now, if only the Icelandic krona were doing better.

After about seven years at HeraldTribune.com, I am sad to leave it and all of our accomplishments behind. But it's time.

I just completed my first week as Interactive Media Director for BostonNOW.com. It's a start-up free newspaper with more than 100,000 circulation and growing. We're taking on some large, entrenched players in a competitive media market.

Anyone reading this blog regularly knows that I've long sought this fight. Through a heavy emphasis on local breaking news and user-generated content, BostonNOW.com will prove its business model is the future. A free daily newspaper could start tomorrow in your backyard and erode the traditional competition. Keep close watch.

If you've been reading this blog regularly, then you also know what to watch for.

In the spirit of aggregators, I've compiled the most important reactions to Adrian Holovaty's new neighborhood site, EveryBlock.com. My thoughts are saved for last.

THE BEST EXPLAINER ON WHAT EVERYBLOCK DOES

MethodsReporter has the most complete look at the site that I've read. And it makes a good observation about the beginnings of a business plan emerging.

I was surprised to see Google Adsense running on EveryBlock. Having scored the monster grant from the Knight Foundation, Holovaty has repeatedly stated that EveryBlock is a non-commercial project, built for good, not for gain (not that running Adsense is incompatible with that direction).

CRAIGSLIST SUDDENLY FEELING CHARITABLE?

Insider Chatter points out that EveryBlock redistributes hundreds of CraigsList user postings. Holovaty said the site took "publicly available" RSS feeds to offer this service. But in the past CraigsList has stopped aggregators from using these feeds for redistribution (especially when those sites make money), claiming of course that it's users don't want ads in other places. Sure, blame the users.

TECHNICAL WONDER BUT CONTEXTUAL BLUNDER, SOME ARGUE

Danny Sanchez at Journalistopia admires the sheer amount of information being automatically aggregated onto EveryBlock, but he says the site is missing an important part of all reporting: Putting information in context.

I notice something that I’ve also encountered in my work on Orlando-area neighborhood pages and data features: It’s tough to put all of that data into context and provide more historical information such as a community’s history, landmarks and evolving story. For instance, having a highly detailed view of crimes in a neighborhood is really cool, but how does my neighborhood compare to another? How is crime in the neighborhood trending? That’s going to be the next big challenge for news organizations who want to do features such as this.

Derek Willis takes exactly the opposite view.

Perhaps the criticism that has most resonance among CAR folks is the one that goes something like, “EveryBlock sure is an impressive technical feat, but it’s just data without context.” It’s rather a back-handed compliment, given our own efforts at providing data on the Web, but there’s some legitimacy there. It just troubles me when newspaper folks look at something built via a programmatic process as somehow not worthy of the title “journalism.”

To me, the main differences between EveryBlock and some of the efforts at presenting data that newspapers have developed are these: First, EB aggregates in a way that others don’t, both in terms of number and variety of sources. Second, unlike most newspaper products, it seems to be designed to let the consumer make the judgment of what’s news.

THE DEFINITION OF NEWS IS RELATIVE . . .

Of all people, TechDirt had the most concise, best explanation of why EveryBlock should be considered journalism.

The buzz today is about the launch of Everyblock, a new "hyperlocal" news provider that recognizes "news" is different to different people -- and things like what building permits are being requested and what restaurants are being inspected may be news if they're on your block or places you go to regularly.

. . . BUT EVERYBLOCK ISN'T NEWS PEOPLE WANT

The creator of BlockRocker says Holovaty's version might soon encounter the same problem that killed his site: Readers just don't care enough about hyper-local news.

Hyperlocal has consistently been a technology without a market. Interests are generally not boxed by locale, and localization does not necessarily convey relevance (or traffic). This applies to news stories, photos, and so on. The second part of this rant is that generally people aren’t that interested in local data - for example, TC talks about the power of Everyblock being able to pull up a list of recently cleaned graffitti in Brooklyn. Huh. How many people are going to want to check up on that regularly?

OUTSIDE.IN SAYS EVERYBLOCK ISN"T A COMPETITOR

The venture capitalist supporting Outside.in, another neighborhood site that is now partnering with The Washington Post, claims EveryBlock isn't a competitor even though it's available in some of the same locations.

Many of you know that our firm, Union Square Ventures, is an investor in Outside.in, co-founded and run by Steven Johnson (the pothole paradox guy). Techcrunch calls outside.in a competitor of EveryBlock. I think collaborator is more like it. It's going to take more than one company to rebuild the local newspaper from the ground up.

In fact, the first thing we all need to understand about "hyperlocal" is that this is going to be a long slog. It's simple enough to put up a search field and ask for a neighborhood name or zip code and return a result. outside.in has been doing that for over a year now. Here's that result for my neighborhood. Here's EveryBlock's result for the same search. You get two very different results, because the services focus on different kinds of local content. But even so, the results are not that compelling. YET.

MY TAKE: NEWS ABOUT MY HOME LACKS EFFECTIVE HOME PAGE

As someone not living in the EveryBlock coverage area, I found it confusing. But I'm guessing so do other folks. And there's one big reason: Where's the home page?

Once I select my area, it seems like the latest information about my neighborhood appears on one very long page, but I can't be sure. The design is simple most everywhere else but here. For such a successful aggregator of other people's information, it does a poor job of compiling all that's available on its own site into one place that's easily comprehended.

Without a home page, the site requires highly motivated users and it becomes primarily a search tool, albeit with guided links to results. If EveryBlock is in the business of news, it needs a better Page 1A. Or, since this is hyperlocal: 1B.

With that said, let me also throw my support behind this project. Even at its launch, EveryBlock already proves that geocoding information is useful to journalism, and making that point was it's primary mission.

But consider all of that my last bit of free advice. As someone who runs a newspaper Web site, I wouldn't want EveryBlock showing up in my city. That's why I know It's a competitor, despite whatever Holovaty says.

Readers' need for a common registration platform is being answered by at least one newspaper -- the U.K.'s Telegraph. Community editor Shane Richmond announced the change via his blog:

The Telegraph will soon become the first newspaper in the world, and the first British media company, to become an OpenID provider. Readers will be able to begin using the service from the end of February.

OpenID is a decentralised registration system that will offer enormous benefits to our users. Once you have an OpenID login you can use it at any of the supporting services, including AOL, Orange, Digg and Blogger. Having to remember fewer passwords is clearly a very good thing.

More newspapers, if not all of them, should follow the Telegraph's lead for a lot of reasons. Newspaper registration systems do not accomplish all that they were heralded as bringing: personalization, demographic information for advertisers, marketing information, etc.

On our own site, HeraldTribune.com registration is present in most sections but many of our vendors require their own logins and do not authenticate against our database. That means users have to remember several logins and passwords just to use one site. Instead, newspaper sites should use OpenID and require that all of their vendors do the same.

Remember that common registration is not only convenient for users and easier to manage for sites, but it's also the foundation for new ideas to come. Start thinking about how it could benefit your site in yet unimagined ways.

The significance of Yahoo's decision to back a universal registration system is being lost in reports I've read, which fail to recognize it's the foundation for any futuristic social networking master profile.

Regular readers know I'm expecting someone (maybe Google) will try housing all of your profile information in one place, and then folks will be able to update across all social networks at once: MySpace, Facebook, your local newspaper.

Yahoo is suddenly supporting OpenID, an open-source solution to housing profiles. An open-source approach would undermine efforts by Google and Microsoft to create their own system. Pay close attention to the second part of this quote on FT.com:

Ash Patel, Yahoo’s head of platforms and infrastructure, said: “Supporting OpenID gives our users the freedom to leverage their Yahoo ID both on and off the Yahoo network, reducing the number of usernames and passwords they need to remember and offering a single, trusted partner for managing their online identity.”

The important part is in bold. Managing identity could easily morph into the type of master profile I've suggested will emerge.

Yahoo isn't making this move out of the kindness of its heart; rather, Yahoo recognizes that it can't afford to let Google emerge as the home of user profiles. Competition for the throne of master profile keeper began with Windows Passport but is now being waged between OpenID, Google's OpenSocial and Microsoft's Windows Live ID. And if that profile is built on OpenID, then monopoly models from Google and Microsoft are scuttled.

Apparently that won't stop Google, which is now half-heartedly supporting OpenID. If OpenID finally fulfills the need for common registration, then the race will be onto the other things on my list or requirements to become the master profile.

What exactly is OpenID?

My new hero in the world is becoming billionaire Sam Zell, who is using a speaking tour of the Tribune Co. to explain the virtues of letting employees take the wheel instead of corporate know-it-all's.

This line earned cheers from an audience of employees at Newsday: "I don't think that this company has been run particularly well in the past."

Zell went on to explain the crux of Tribune's downfall this way:

"I don't think it's been run very well because, I think, philosophically there is just a basic issue that we are attempting to address and attempting to find out the answer to. This company is run as though it were a media conglomerate. I think the question is: Is it a media conglomerate or is it a conglomerate of media companies? And that really addresses this whole question of whether we need a bottom-up management operation or a top-down management operation."

During another one of these speeches at the Hartford Courant, Zell made it clear that top-down management hasn't worked for the Tribune's Web strategy either.

Tribune must find ways to more aggressively pursue sales and "attack the Internet area much better, in a much more sophisticated fashion than what we've done to date." Referring to Tribune's companywide website platform, he said, "It sucks."

Zell's theory supports what I said about the Tribune's uniform design when it first launched. In "Attack of the clones," I reminded everyone that Knight-Ridder's demise was preceded by a companywide approach to Web design. Zell understands that what works in one market doesn't automatically work everywhere else.

Instead, the Tribune should dole out expectations for revenue and provide the support that its media companies request to meet those goals. Mandates such as the Tribune's companywide design stop each newspaper from creating a product that epitomizes their workers, who actually live in the places they serve.

Facing rough financial times, big executives react instinctively by taking more control over products. But the paradox of leadership here is that the right move is actually empowering the workers to take more ownership in big and small ways. Zell pushed that point during his visit to The Morning Call.

"I don't really look at you guys as employees, I look at you as partners. And I plan to win, and I want you guys to win with me."

A combination of entertaining story selection, casual presentation, and cool design make MiamiHerald.com's new video program an instant success -- at least in my book. It's been around a while but I'm just noticing.

The thing I never liked about the now deceased TimesCast was its lack of content. The TimesCast was a LinkFest and not much more. Now here comes MiamiHerald.com with "What the 5?," which links to the day's five most interesting stories, some of which are produced by the show, others of which are links anywhere on the Web.

The presentation is also cool, taking TimesCast's idea of providing links to stories to a new level and then bringing the show's production quality up a notch, too. It's like these folks combined linky-funny TimesCast with swanky-newsy Studio55, and then mixed in an editor who feels the pulse of the audience.

Many have pointed out that the concept is awfully similar to Yahoo's "The 9," which I know nothing about, except that it isn't local.

The best thing you can do is stop reading and instead go watch "What the 5?" Many of the kinks from launch are worked out. So if you've seen it before, then you'll probably be relieved to find they're recording much more B-roll, the set has changed, and the streaming works.

HeraldTribune.com's own Melissa Worden talked about her recent speaking engagement in California, where newsroom folks asked her advice on how to crack the clique that runs multimedia. And she has some advice from inside the clique.

What I learned is some of them feel there are so many hoops to jump through to do multimedia, or that the one person who knows how to post the content is often too busy to work on their projects.

I know exactly how they feel. From both sides.

As a content producer at USATODAY.com, I used to have to pitch stories to the Rich Media team, hoping they’d have the time and resources to do it — and they had a “team.”

In smaller newspapers, oftentimes only one person coordinates all the multimedia content. As multimedia producer at HeraldTribune.com, I was inundated last January with multimedia requests from the newsroom when they were told “Web content” was to be a part of their performance goals (they didn’t realize at the time that “the Web” can be more than “multimedia”). I became the one who had to say no to projects.

As a reporter itching to get involved in online, what do you do? How do you get around this?

I think one way (which is what HeraldTribune.com is doing now), is to put the tools, resources, and the ability to actually post the content via CMS in the hands of the reporters and editors.

Gulp.

Wait a minute. That’s MY job as a multimedia producer.

She goes on to explain why after all her years of experience and training, she decided it's in the best interest of the newspaper to let everyone else take the multimedia reigns.

All we know for sure is the Mercury News' editor suddenly resigned. The rumors say she proposed too many changes, some of which fulfilled my prediction that standalone Sports sections could soon hit the cutting room floor.

Here's how E&P reports the proposed changes to the newspaper:

(Deputy Managing Editor Matt) Mansfield said the specific changes would have taken the current four-to-five section design and set a standard three-section paper with all news in the first section, business and technology in the second section, and sports and entertainment in the third. "It would have been a little bit of a cutback in pages, but it was just the sections that they looked at changing," he recalled.

Editor Carole Leigh Hutton is already gone, and she's replaced by MediaNews VP David J. Butler, who is apparently oblivious to the sharp declines in circulation and revenue his newspaper is experiencing. In comments to the newsroom, Butler criticized proposals from the "Rethinking Project" as too bold for the moment.

Too bold? Reports say the Mercury News had more than 400 editorial employees in 2005 but has since cut about 200. Layoffs were announced as recently as last month.

In the face of that obscene amount of failure, don't we want the newsroom and its editors proposing bold changes?

Remember during the New Hampshire debate when John Edwards seemed to team up with Barack Obama against Hillary Clinton, saying, "Every time he speaks out for change, every time I fight for change, the forces of status quo are going to attack."

Edwards easily could have been talking about the newspaper industry.

In a memo to staffers earlier this week, The Morning Call's editor said he planned to use software by Tansa to shrink the copy desk staff. I quickly proclaimed it the latest match of man versus machine. President Robert Lazlo says not so, and answers some reader questions in this interview conducted via e-mail.

ROBERT: Tansa's software has not been the direct cause of any job losses in the USA. That's not how it works. The software was originally created by copy editors, for copy editors. We don't think of it as "the copy editor vs. the computer" at all. Quite the opposite.

Copy editors in the USA are generally overworked and underpaid, but at the same time being asked to do even more (24x7 Web publishing, for example). Tansa's software - which is just a far more advanced and efficient version of the spell checker that everybody already has - reduces the amount of repetitive, boring work they do, allowing them to focus on the high value stuff.

LUCAS: I don't buy your argument that no copy editor has ever lost their job as a result of Tansa. The Morning Call's editor flat-out states that using Tansa means the newspaper can operate with fewer copy editors on their universal desk. Here's what he said: "Tansa would save editing time for the copy desk, allowing us to more effectively operate a universal desk with fewer editors." Regardless of whether you all built Tansa to replace copy editors, don't you agree that if a large copy desk becomes more efficient, then it could be reduced in size?

ROBERT: This is obviously a sensitive question, and an issue that we understand pretty well. Tansa was created by newspaper copy editors, and most of the employees of Tansa have worked for, or with, newspapers for most of our adult lives.

To date, the statement I made is true.

But it is important to note that Tansa is not causing the downsizing that is going on in newsrooms across the country. The challenges facing the newspaper industry today are well documented, and every newspaper is looking at ways to reduce costs. These cuts would take place whether Tansa existed or not, unfortunately.

Believe it or not, however, most newspaper companies are concerned about the impact of these cuts on the quality of their products. Some publishers see Tansa's tools as a way to mitigate any "damage" caused by a reduced number of eyes and fingers on the copy desk.

We also know that most publishers are trying to create and distribute more content - in more formats - than ever before, and so they often view Tansa as a way to do that - without having to increase copy editing staff.

LUCAS: One of my readers asks: "Exactly what does the computer program do? Does it highlight problem spots? Does it change around the copy to what it thinks is right? Can you override the system?"

ROBERT: It is basically an advanced, more efficient spelling checker than the ones built into standard desktop editing tools.

The text is analyzed on a server and compared to a customized dictionary that is created for each installation. So, the results are intended to be much more focused and relevant than a standard spelling checker.

It can correct errors in:
- Basic punctuation issues
- Spelling (including full names)
- Usage (style)
- and hyphenation (H&J)

The user decides when to run it, and what to do with the software's suggestions. And that's all they are - suggestions. The user is in control of what happens with the suggestions.

LUCAS: This is a softball, but important question: What makes Tansa any better than Microsoft Word's built-in grammar and spell checker?

ROBERT: I love softball.

It's usually easier to show you the advantages, rather than describe them, but . . . there are four things that make Tansa unique:

- Technology: Tansa analyzes text in context, and compares the results to a dictionary that includes multiword phrases.

- A complete solution: Our client application plug-ins enable the use of Tansa within the most commonly used desktop writing, editing and layout applications (even across different operating systems). The system also includes a complete suite of administration and management utilities.

- A centralized solution: A centralized server hosts a single customized dictionary that is shared by all the users in an organization.

- Customized dictionaries: Every company is unique, therefore Tansa Systems creates customized dictionaries tailored to the specific requirements of each installation. We also have licensing agreements that allow us to build dictionaries based on Webster's New World College Dictionary (4th edition) and the AP Stylebook for our daily newspaper customers - compare that to the "generic" dictionaries found in most other editing applications.

LUCAS: What was the epiphany moment that made you all decide to create the Tansa software?

ROBERT: I wasn't an employee at the time, and therefore can't take credit,
but - as with so many other software products - Tansa was created out of frustration.

In 1995, one of the head copy editors at the largest daily newspaper in Norway was frustrated with the spelling tools (and dictionary) that his copy desk was using. He had some ideas, and he happened to know some computer scientists. They created a prototype for that newspaper, and eventually it became a product available for sale to other newspapers - first in Norway, then the rest of Scandinavia, and now in several languages around the world.

LUCAS: Where is Tansa currently in use? And how many newspaper companies have shown interest in starting to use the system?

ROBERT: It is being used by a wide variety of publications, including (to name a few of the English-language sites):

- Aiken Standard (Aiken, S.C.)
- Kitsap Sun (Kitsap, Wash.)
- Newsday
- New York Magazine
- The Economist
- The Orange County Register
- The Rockford Register-Star (Rockford, Ill.)
- The Seattle Times
- The St. Cloud Times (St. Cloud, Minn.)
- The Toronto Star

Interest has come from every major newspaper group, all over the country (the world, really).

LUCAS: Do you envision a day when a small, upstart Web site that has no copy editors might use Tansa in lieu of paying a copy desk? Then as the site grows maybe it never hires a human copy desk and instead relies on regular editors?

ROBERT: That is not a scenario that any of us have specifically discussed.


Many thanks to Robert for taking the time to explain Tansa and what it does. I'm sure he'll be reading this post and will be interested in your comments.