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BostonNow Dead

The gauntlet of newspaper hawkers surrounding the subway turnstiles has thinned out. On Monday, the BostonNow, one of Boston’s two free daily newspapers, suddenly ceased operations due to adverse economic conditions in Iceland. Yes, the BostonNow is so BostonThen.

BostonNow first appeared about a year ago, after the Boston Metro proved to be a success with subway commuters. BostonNow copied the Metro’s distribution methods exactly by hiring minimum-wage hawkers to stand in subway stations during rush hours, obstruct commuters and yell “Metro! BostonNow! Metro! BostonNow!”

BostonNow’s gimmick was that the paper offered a blend of traditional and citizen journalism, meaning that it supplemented AP news stories with the content from local bloggers. I had picked up a BostonNow some months ago, and had been appalled by the dearth of real news, the bumper crop of entertainment news, the foamy-mouthed local reporting, the anecdotal editorials, the sloppy editing, and the finger-coating cheap ink. The most intellectually stimulating element of the BostonNow were the Sudoku puzzles.

The BostonNow claimed a daily circulation of 119,000 newspaper, which spurs my ongoing internal feud with my pretentious core: Is it better for people to read a free daily like the Metro or BostonNow, or read nothing at all? The obvious argument is that it’s better for people to read something than nothing. However, if people stopped reading the free dailies, then they would go away. Some people would read nothing, but others might return to spending 50 cents on a real newspaper with reporters and editors and information, not infotainment.

Posted in Massachusetts.

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