Somerville Scout: In the Ring and Off the Streets
My other piece in the latest Scout focuses on the latest incarnation of Somerville’s Boxing Club. The club is now called the Somerville Youth Development and Boxing Club, but as of December, only the boxing part was in real high gear. The article looks at what the youth development component will mean, how it blends with the boxing, and when it will get started.
Check out the story in these PDFs, titled by page numbers…
Somerville Scout: The Path to Progress?
I put a lot of work into this story, which was essentially a progress report on Somerville’s ambitions and struggles to develop its commercial tax base. I believe it’s the most hours I’ve put into a story in my career thus far, with almost every interview lasting at least 20 minutes and two going over an hour. Even if the story didn’t break any major news, I was happy with the breadth of its exploration and the lessons I learned as a young reporter in putting it all together.
Somerville Scout is published every two months and delivered to every address in the city.
Check out the PDF of the article here.
By the way…
I’m going to be using this blog again, at least on a now-and-then basis (meaning more frequently than every eight months 
). Yes, this post is largely intended for myself. Now it’s out there, and now I have to!
Jesse Carlson and Berlin Patch: Hyperlocals and Pro and/or Big-Time Sports
I don’t know a lot about Berlin Patch.
I’ve written and/or edited for its cousins in West Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, the South End, Falmouth, Newton, Norwood…I think there are a few more…over the last couple of years, but I can’t imagine I’d even visited Berlin, CT’s site until today.
Having just completed a hard day’s work, I headed over to my favorite source for sports news — Rotoworld — to learn about what’s gone on today at baseball’s winter meetings in Dallas. Only a little bit of Red Sox news awaited me — they signed Jessie Carlson to a split major/minor league contract. Nifty enough, I suppose. He’s had his injuries, but if they want Daniel Bard and Alfredo Aceves in the rotation, bullpen bodies are in demand.
What caught my eye was the source: you’ve got it, Berlin Patch. And they weren’t just saying it. Berlin Patch — which covers Berlin High School, Carlson’s alma mater — broke this news.
Again, I get it, in the grand world of Red Sox Internet-fandom, from Sons of Sam Horn to Boston Dirt Dogs, not that big of a big deal. Especially on the same day Albert Pujols became a quarter-billionaire.
But in the small town of Berlin, it probably is. Having broken the news, the story will probably get the links and clicks to keep it as the site’s most viewed page for a week or so (that’s just a guess; again, I don’t know much about the Berlin site). Carlson’s brother tipped Patch off.
Where else can hyperlocals get this kind of traffic from national sports stories? Obviously, they’re not in the best position to break major sports news, especially when it comes to free agency and trades, and even if they were, they need to justify their reporting it with a local twist. But what about if they have recruits at their local high school planning to go play for Penn State next year? Get on that. See if they’re still planning on heading into a post-Paterno Nittany Lions experience. For that matter, any local recruit headed to a major program really should be pushed on the site; some of these colleges have big-time followings (like the Red Sox have in New England) and will want to know about these guys. And if a major athlete makes an appearance in town, make sure you’re on it. If you can somehow score an interview at the autograph session, I think even talk about the team and their season is worth publishing, since it was said there, in town. If you get something remotely juicy, you also figure to get the traffic.
These are just a couple of thoughts from my end; feel free to pipe in with your own.
Worth noting: the Berlin site published the story a day before Rotoworld picked it up. Lesson? The traffic might not come immediately, but if you break it, they will come.
West Roxbury Patch: Parkway Group Exploring Possibility of Converting Brook Farm Into Community Farm
This story from last week (while I was blissfully on vacation in San Diego) details a Boston-based group’s intentions to develop a community farm for CSA and education purposes on historic Brook Farm in West Roxbury. It would be a long process, and it may not even get started, but there definitely seems to be some community support behind the idea.
Daybreaker Lead Singer Dan Rose
Daybreaker‘s debut album hit stores today.
Here’s a story I did about lead singer Dan Rose for Falmouth Patch in anticipation of the release a couple of weeks ago.
A Few More Patch Stories
Just to add some meat to this thing in its early goings, here are a few feature stories I’ve done with Patch.
- JP: What Drives People to Volunteer at V.A. Hospital?
- Newton: Potter Fans Flock to Theater for Midnight Showing, Costumes and All
- West Roxbury: How Do West Roxbury Banks Give Back to the Community?
- West Roxbury: WREC Students Clear: “Hate” Redesign and Reinvest Plan
- West Roxbury: Jack Duggan Leading BLS Resurgence
West Roxbury Patch: Experienced Catholic Memorial Baseball Team Prepared to Defend Conference Title
Published today: my preview of Catholic Memorial School’s 2011 baseball season. CM figures to have a strong go of it this season, and will be led by highly regarded pitching and corner infield prospect John Gorman.
“As a team, nothing short of a state championship and conference championship would be acceptable,” said CM senior pitcher/third baseman John Gorman, who will play for Boston College next year. “We have a lot of guys coming back, a lot of expectations. The last couple years have been a huge disappointment, losing to Catholic Conference teams in the South Sectional finals. Anything short of those goals would be a huge disappointment for us.”
Having covered Gorman on the grid iron last fall – he captained the team as an inside linebacker and tight end/fullback – I can tell you first hand that he is a pretty remarkable athlete. Check out this Q&A I did with him last month in preparation of the baseball season.
