Month: April 2007

What about the Tommy Times?

The Boston Herald today pokes fun at Mayor Tom Menino, who criticized the media yesterday for what he calls their overemphasis on violent crime. The Herald’s Laurel Sweet reports on Menino’s church appearance in Dorchester:

“A lot of people want to believe it’s out of control. It’s not out of control,” Menino assured a packed house at Greater Love Tabernacle in the heart of Dorchester’s shooting gallery, where he was welcomed by thunderous applause.

“This city works. The problem is you’re always seeing headlines about the bad news. I wish we had a good news newspaper. The Good News of Boston. The bad guys don’t control this city, they only control the headlines.”

But I thought there already was a Good News of Boston — the Boston City Communicator, forthrightly labeled “Mayor Menino’s ‘Communicator'” in this press release marking its January launch and immediately dubbed the Tommy Times by the Herald. The announcement sparked a wave of derision on Universal Hub, with local blogger Carpundit calling it “a cynical and horrible idea.”

I know the Tommy Times is only a quarterly — but that means it should be just about time for another edition. Suggested lead headline: “City Peaceful, Prosperous Thanks to Mayor.”

The Boston Globe also covered Menino’s remarks, but Maria Cramer’s story doesn’t mention His Honor’s media critique. Adam Reilly points out that Cramer caught up with the mayor at a different church.

Spotlight on Newton North

It’s just one high school, so what were the odds that both the New York Times and the Boston Globe would publish two entirely different big stories on Newton North High School today? (Yeah, yeah, I know, both papers are owned by the New York Times Co. But I can’t see this as anything but a coincidence.)

The Times gives front-page, above-the-fold display to Sara Rimer’s feature on “Amazing Girls,” high-achieving young women competing for slots at the nation’s leading colleges and universities. It’s a terrific read, and I think my friend Adam Reilly misses the point — it’s less a paean to these kids’ amazingness than it is a look at the insane pressure they’re under.

I can’t believe folks at the Globe were happy to see the Times steal their lunch money with Rimer’s story. (Although Tracy Jan’s front-page piece on Sylvester Cooper, in danger of dropping out of the Boston schools with an eighth-grade education, certainly fills the paper’s daily quota of socially significant education stories.) Still, the Globe has its own Newton North piece, leading the City & Region section with an interesting look — reported by Ralph Ranalli — at how the new Newton North has managed to run up a price tag of $154.6 million.

Be sure to check out the accompanying graphic, which may be emblematic of how editors at the newly downsized Globe plan to move forward. This is the epitome of local coverage — a long story on cost overruns at one high school, along with a floor-by-floor, interactive chart. No doubt we’re going to see a lot more of this, as major metros like the Globe become more and more local in their focus. Indeed, the Globe even leads the paper today with a story on Proposition 2 1/2 overrides in the suburbs.

Nostalgia note: Nice Globe story by Geoff Edgers on the refurbished Children’s Museum. I was glad to see, in yet another interactive graphic, that the Japanese house survived. The Media Nation family spent many happy afternoons there when the kids were little.