After finally reading GateHouse's complaint and editor Greg Reibman's affidavit, I'm not worried about finding some guy at my door with a document in a blue jacket (speaking of documents, here they all are).
Hey, there! Log in / Register
Gatehouse Media
By adamg - 12/22/08 - 2:02 pm
Dan Kennedy breaks the news that GateHouse Media will sue the New York Times Co. over the way the Globe's Your Town sites (starting with Newton) allegedly violate GateHouse's intellectual property rights by selling ads on pages with links to GateHouse articles.
Whoa. I make money from ads on pages with links to GateHouse articles, so effective immediately, I won't be linking to any more articles on GateHouse sites. It's a shame, GateHouse papers do some good work and they seemed to understand how the Web is built, but the last thing I need is to defend myself from a lawsuit over hyperlinks (and yeah, I'm probably being melodramatic; GateHouse could have sued me long ago, but their links aren't worth that much trouble to me). So, GateHouse, how come you haven't sued Google yet?
By adamg - 11/19/08 - 11:11 am
I suppose there's a reason boston.com has posted a GateHouse video about how great the Newton Tab is. Maybe it's the ads they've wrapped around it.
By adamg - 11/12/08 - 11:06 am
GateHouse Media honcho Kirk Davis stops just short of threatening a lawsuit, but tells Boston Daily he'll be watching the Globe's impending Mega-micro-hyperlocal Newton site with two eagle eyes, to make sure boston.com doesn't try to stomp on his Wicked Local territory. He even gets off a good crack about the 800-pound gorilla now being more like a 200-pound gorilla, which is kind of funny in an ironic sort of way, coming from a guy whose own employer's stock is now worth like negative 3 cents a share, but whatever.
And here I sit, wondering if the issue is simply one of scale. I link to and quote from Wicked Local sites all the time. While my motives are pure as the driven snow, (of course!), I do make money from this site. But I'm no financial threat to GateHouse, whereas the Globe, yeah, a bit of a different issue. Still, Google makes money from putting ads next to GateHouse content on its pages, too.
Dan Kennedy analyzes the brewing battle in more detail.
By adamg - 7/15/08 - 10:38 pm
GateHouse had been using YouTube to post news videos, but now the video service that lets teenagers post videos of themselves stomping on other teenagers has decided to pull Wicked Local's video of the Beverly Gloucester-sucks floats, not because of the eight-foot long spurting penis, but because one person in the video complained to YouTube. Of course, you realize, this means war:
By adamg - 6/8/08 - 11:35 am
Dan Kennedy discusses how the stock of their parent company is plummeting and how Pat Purcell is looking pretty smart for having sold them all off.
By adamg - 2/22/08 - 8:27 am
DougH was amazed to see the Newton Tab headlined a story about a science group for middle-school girls:
Girls Gone Wild
He notes the headline was changed a tad for the online version.
By adamg - 2/14/08 - 9:48 am
The Globe reports GateHouse Media is laying off 35 employees and not filling 25 vacant positions at its Massachusetts papers - including the Quincy Patriot-Ledger, which cut 130 jobs last fall.
By adamg - 2/5/08 - 3:41 pm
The Cambridge Chronicle has shut down comments on articles, following the lead of the Somerville Journal, which shut off coments after trolls poisoned stories about a baby and a crossing guard, and the Swampscott Reporter, which found itself deluged with hate comments about the local Little League.
David Harris at the Chronicle writes:
By adamg - 10/3/07 - 9:06 am
GateHouse Media is moving all the Town Online sites it inherited from the Herald (which inherited them from CNC) to its Wicked Local platform. For example, here's Wicked Local Roslindale. New look for the sites, as well - and commenting on all articles, which is cool and all, but will a newspaper ever figure out that maybe you should be aggregating all those comments into a central discussion area as well, rather than just leaving all these threads hanging out all over the place, forcing people looking for a good argument to skip all over the place?
Also: Given that GateHouse papers surround Boston like a donut, it would be cool if the search tool gave you the option to limit your search by paper or community. If I'm on the Roslindale site, and I search on "Washington Street," chances are pretty good I don't want to see links to stories about Washington Street in Canton.
By adamg - 9/21/07 - 8:25 pm
So recently we learned that Lola, the Globe's impending transvestite fanzine women's fashion magazine, will feature a petite size that's convenient and small enough to fit in a purse.
Apparently GateHouse Media thinks gals want something larger, something that can handle D cells, at least (thanks, Swirlygrrl, thanks a lot). Next month, the owner of Boston's suburban newspapers (OK, and the Parkway Transcript) beats Lola to market with a women's magazine called Skirt:
... The magazine will focus on profiles of women in the community, don't-miss events and highlights of products from local shops. The publication's oversized format, lively graphics and creative presentation are designed to make advertising and content work together in a way that captures the reader. ...
So which size will win?
You can get a taste of Skirt at its new Web site (the magazine has actually been around since 1994; GateHouse is licensing the thing from a Southern newspaper chain). I'm obviously not in the target audience, but, gah, all that script makes me want to poke my eyes out with a fork something fierce. Also, somebody should inform the publisher that unless your last name is Faulkner or Joyce, paragraphs are a good idea.
By adamg - 4/12/07 - 8:58 am
Gatehouse Media unwrapped its new Town Online sites today (Newton as an example; Roslindale as another).
By adamg - 12/15/06 - 2:32 pm
Lisa Williams has the scoop: GateHouse newspapers (the old CNC papers) are beginning to put "creative commons" copyright notices on their content - and to open up their sites to reader content:
... Sharing content, letting non-professionals submit content, and connecting with a global network of open-source tinkerers reveal a picture of a firm that's open to the wide world of the web. ...
By adamg - 11/29/06 - 9:50 pm
Adam Reilly gets the scoop: GateHouse Media, which now owns all those suburban papers around here, is dropping the Herald's online classified system in favor of its own branded Wicked Local classifieds (with hints the editorial will shift to Wicked Local as well):
... It's not clear how much money Purcell's going to lose as a result, but it should be a tidy sum. ...
He quotes a memo from GateHouse local uber-guy Kirk Davis that ends:
By adamg - 9/16/06 - 8:39 am
David Scott notices that one of the first effects of Gatehouse Media's takeover of the old CNC papers (and the Quincy Patriot-Ledger and Brockton Enterprise) is consolidation of sports coverage - basically, get rid of all those redundant reporters and columnists cluttering up all those different papers. Could news coverage be next?
- ‹‹
- Page 3
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
