Boston Phoenix

What was so valuable in the Phoenix today?

adamg — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:23:18 -0400

UPDATE: Rush over to your nearest Phoenix box now for a card worth 30 minutes of free time on a porn site. That's what was worth pawing through all those papers for.

On-the-street reporter Matthew files this puzzler:

Over by North Station I witnessed someone pull the entire stack of papers out of the box. He went through each one to pull out a small white-ish piece of paper.

It didn't look like it was the first distributon box he hit either ...

The Phoenix has another patent; Facebook not first to feel Mindich wrath

adamg — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:50:44 -0400

In addition to the patent used by Phoenix subsidiary Tele-Publishing, Inc. to sue Facebook this week, the company has a patent (issued in 2000) for a method and apparatus for matching registered profiles.

And in 2005, Tele-Publishing sued several alternative weeklies across the country for allegedly violating both of these patents. The issue never got to a jury because the newspapers, in Washington, Chicago and Sacramento, settled the matter by signing a licensing deal with Tele-Publishing (here's the consent decree).

Here's the abstract:

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Boston Phoenix claims patent on interactive Web pages; sues Facebook

adamg — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 09:50:26 -0400

Tele-Publishing, Inc., a subsidiary of Phoenix Media/Communications Group, Inc., yesterday filed a federal lawsuit against Facebook, alleging the social network's personal pages violate a patent Tele-Publishing was granted in 2001.

The complaint, filed in US District Court in Boston, seeks unspecified treble damages and an end to Facebook's alleged infringement of Tele-Publishing's patent, which sets out a method by which a remote user can upload images and information to a server to build a personal Web page.

From the Tele-Publishing patient:

Tele-Publishing bills itself as "the leading provider of revenue generating Personals content to the newspaper industry."

If Tele-Publishing wins, the decision could have a profound effect on the Web, since many sites now use similar techniques for letting users set up personal pages, from large social networks to, well, Universal Hub.

Reporter vs. debate organizers

adamg — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 07:50:16 -0400

David Bernstein at the Phoenix declares an at-large city council forum on Wednesday "poorly promoted" and lightly attended. Open Media Boston, which helped organize the debate, replies, "oh, yeah?" or words to that effect.

Reporter to DA: Bring it on

adamg — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 13:31:37 -0400

Five years ago, David Bernstein at the Phoenix wrote a long article about the Boston Police Department's really low success rate in getting murderers put away, The Worst Homicide Squad In The Country."

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Layoffs, salary cuts at the Phoenix

adamg — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 00:09:10 -0400

Adam Reilly reports, adds people at the top are taking bigger pay cuts than those at the bottom.

Reilly to Globe: Buy UH, Hire Gaffin

david_yamada — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:01:05 -0500

In the Jan. 30 edition of the Phoenix:

http://thephoenix.com/Boston/News/75898-Rescuing-the-Globe/

What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

adamg — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 08:40:45 -0500

It's Ask The Phoenix Political Reporter Anything Day again. Now, last time, we were a bit sophomoric, so let's ask him about Obama or the state budget crisis or Sam Yoon or something, rather, than, oh, a list of stupid questions. And Zak? That Rule 34 thing? Oh, never mind, you're going to ask about that no matter what I say.

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Phoenix moves into Spanish-language media

adamg — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:35:36 -0500

The Boston Phoenix has bought El Planeta, one of the four Spanish-language newspapers now serving the Boston area, along with its Web site, TuBoston.com. Terms of the deal were not announced, nor were any plans to come out with a new paper called El Fenix.

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Ask a Phoenix reporter

adamg — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 13:05:02 -0500

Dear David Bernstein,

Could God make a boulder so heavy even He couldn't lift it?

Hey! You said we could ask you anything today, and you promised you'd answer all our questions!