Hey, there! Log in / Register

Adults appointed to run boston.com

Tim Molloy, who has 20 years of experience as an editor and reporter at the Associated Press and TVGuide.com, was announced today as editor of the site that is no longer the digital wing of the Globe. Molloy was previously digital engagement editor at PBS's Frontline. Also named today: Kaitlyn Johnson, executive digital editor of Boston Magazine, as deputy editor.

Topics: 
Free tagging: 


Ad:


Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!

Comments

is this a good thing or a bad thing? Will we see less of the buzzfeed crap on the page or more of it?

up
Voting closed 0

I doubt that boston.com's signal to noise ratio will ever recover to a level where it is worth following again. I finally unfollowed them on Twitter when some fool was tweeting primitive ASCII art.

up
Voting closed 0

Hopefully this set of adults will do better than the last set of adults. After all the last deputy editor (Hilary Sargent) who was supposedly in charge of the site was demoted and suspended for shilling a T-shirt.

http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2014/12/18/boston-com-names-interim-editor...

up
Voting closed 0

Was an announcement made on this? I must have missed it...which isn't surprising as I've pretty much given up going to boston.com.

up
Voting closed 0

They decided bostonglobe.com would be the newspaper site and boston.com would be the "edgy" and "viral" site. They even have separate newsrooms now.

up
Voting closed 0

Don't know if this was what you meant, but the way I read it was not that the wing is no longer digital, but that it's not associated with the Boston Globe the way it used to be.

up
Voting closed 0

No wonder they didn't hire me :-).

Note: No, don't worry, I didn't apply for the job ...

up
Voting closed 0

So it's still independent of the BostonGlobe.com.

up
Voting closed 0

"They" keep drilling into us that Boston.com and The Boston Globe are separate entities.
It is odd, to me, that The Boston Globe goes out of it's way to disown Boston.com. I can understand it now as Boston.com isn't work the click, but Boston.com used to be the first place I'd check out each day.

I say this because they link to eachother, they are owned by the same Henry and anyone whose been around here long enough know they are connected.

I understand they are both having identity crisis but this bleating on about being two totally different entities just seems like they are both in denial.

up
Voting closed 0

Now they just need to hire some journalists and some writers and they'll be all set!

up
Voting closed 0

They have completely lost me as a user of that site. I used to swear by that place too. Talk about a downfall.

up
Voting closed 0

A lot of news sites are doing similar. They should never have given away the content in the first place. They created a whole generation of people not used to paying for news. I loved Boston.com. But gave up on it about a year ago.

up
Voting closed 0

Adam seems to do a good job at giving away content for free. And he isn't going pay-way anytime soon. But I also don't know what his finances look like either.. :)

up
Voting closed 0

Nobody would pay for content back in the day when the Web started. It was kind of an academic exercise at first to make information more available. You're right that it trained a whole generation (and the older generation, too) stopped paying for newspapers and relied on Boston.com for their news. (I stopped about 2004.)

But newspapers were dying long before the web. TV news killed evening papers in the '70s. The web just accelerated the process. The original web model was for advertising to pay for the hosting and dual purposing the newsroom. And I suspect that web advertising doesn't bring in the bucks you need to support a major metro daily. Hence the de-evolution of Boston.com into a crappy website to push the paywalled version up. I kind of doubt the new folks will make it better unless they turn it into a version of UniversalHub.com, which their corporate overlords probably won't allow. (I don't think Adam has to worry about that.)

up
Voting closed 0

I still remember The Globe up until about 1998 or so, especially the Sunday Globe, sill being delivered with enough pages to make it almost as thick as a phone book (Remember those?).
Page after page of job advertising. Filenes and Jordans/Macy's would have about 10 full page ads each. Apartment rentals, autos you name it. All still advertising. Then sometime between the release of Windows 95 and Windows 98 that pretty much was the beginning of the end. Once everyone's grandma could figure out a PC, everthing went online.

The rest was history.

up
Voting closed 0

I would shift all the Globe celebrity coverage, other entertainment industry whoring, puff pieces, event listings, etc. to boston.com, and make the Globe 99% hardcore journalism (well, and some relatively non-fluffy sports coverage at the Globe, just for the print subscribers).

BDC, with all the fluff and license to create as much more fluff as they can, would then be the cash cow to support the Globe's journalism. The line between the two kinds of content would be stronger than when they were combined in a traditional paper. The Globe is expected to lose money. (Globe print edition costs are supposed to at least break even, though, so that the money-losing can be invested in journalism itself.)

BDC would avoid doing things that might have the appearance of journalism, lest readers are further confused about journalism. This also avoids cognitive dissonance of trying to strike a balance between doing journalism and generating fluff.

BDC wouldn't publish full stories from the Globe or other news outlets -- only blog-like linking/quoting and commenting. (BDC would be fluffier than UH, since UH does some journalism, and BDC is not allowed.)

This could be a good thing.

up
Voting closed 0

So now that they have adults there does this mean employees that commit libel like Hilary Sargent will be, you know, fired?

up
Voting closed 0

Man, Boston.com used to be great. Anyways, I really think it is time that UHub, and some of the other Boston blogs come together and form an entirely new site. Take out Boston.com . What they put on is utter garbage a lot of the time.

http://bostonamigos.com/the-boston-globe-vs-the-boston-herald/

up
Voting closed 0

I do want to mention that the weather report on Boston.com aka David Epstein (@growingwisdom) is one of the better (best?) parts of the website. No need to tar and feather him with the rest of the website. His reports are generally quite descriptive and for these last few storms have been helpful in planning. He also gives twitter updates in between website updates.

up
Voting closed 0