Category: Worcester

Worcester Magazine, as of the past hour or so, has moved to the Joomla content management system.

Update: Noticed they’ve gotten worcestermagazine.com; they used to be only worcestermag.com.

Holy cow, you can now comment on articles at the Telegram & Gazette website.

I tried this out and found that:

• Your comment appears can appear instantly.
• Comments with URLs go to moderation.
• Your e-mail doesn’t appear in the comment.
• No count of comments is included in article blurbs. No “recent comments” list. No way to browse comments in general, or get a sense of where the discussion is hot.

Here’s an article with comments.

No idea how long this feature has been there. Kevin Ksen mentioned it to me this morning, so I suppose it was there yesterday. Someone with us asked: Can you still only read the last 14 days for free? Answer: Looks like it.

Lest you think hell has frozen over, the T&G’s RSS feed remains screwed up.

This morning Kevin Ksen, accused of trespassing and resisting arrest in connection with organizing and photojournalism he was doing regarding the Fox TV show “COPS”, was given a 6-month continuance, at the end of which the case will be dismissed.

The judge said: “Mr. Ksen, you stay out of trouble, the case gets dismissed in six months.”

I’ll update this post with links to better articles this afternoon.

Video update: Click To Play

To share, go to blip.tv.

T&G update: Criminal charges against local activist set aside:

[ADA] Mr. Bibaud said in his motion that he had discussed the proposed disposition of the case with Police Chief Gary J. Gemme and deemed the continuance without a plea or finding a “suitable” resolution given the circumstances of the case. Mr. Bibaud said the case involved allegations that Mr. Ksen interfered with the arrest of another individual.
The prosecutor said police officials agreed with the proposed disposition, which was accepted by Judge Despotopulos.

Another T&G update:

A reader asks: Has the case been “set aside,” or “continued”?

I think the answer is: the case has been dismissed, but in order that everyone involved can save face, it’s been dismissed with this 6-month delay/continuance. “Set aside” is surely the wrong way to put it: the case has been resolved, as far as everyone involved is concerned.

See also: Worcester man arrested for flyering?, Citizen journalist files “false arrest” complaint

A few days after Kevin was arrested in July, Worcester’s Police Chief kicked “COPS” out of the city, saying:

“I just believe it is in the best interest to ask ‘Cops’ to leave.”

Business @ Noon:

Worcester Business Journal to be sold; WoMag will be kept

WORCESTER-Worcester Business Journal and two other publications owned by Worcester Publishing Ltd., Hartford Business Journal and Mainebiz, will be sold to a new company being formed by Peter Stanton and Joe Zwiebel, two senior managers at Worcester Publishing.

Plans to sell the three business publications to New England Business Media LLC were announced this morning by Allen W. Fletcher, principal owner of Worcester Publishing, 172 Shrewsbury St. Mr. Fletcher said the sale will allow him to focus on a single publication, Worcester Magazine, which will continue to be published by Worcester Publishing but move to a new location on Water Street.

[…]

Two or three full-time positions will be eliminated, he said.

Press release.

Update: T&G article, no real new details.

As a result, Worcester Magazine will leave its 172 Shrewsbury St. offices for space above Jose Murphy’s on Water Street in the old Arkus Pharmacy Building.

Just heard the rumor that Worcester Magazine is being sold broken off from its sister publications, changing location, and laying off some people. I hope this rumor isn’t true; a weaker weekly is the last thing Worcester needs.

I tried calling someone over there, but so far just got voicemail….

See also: Santa Rosa TV station fires news staff, to ask local folks to provide programming

Update: It has been suggested that freeing Worcester Magazine of the other publications in the Worcester Publishing stable might make it more focused, rather than weaken it. Sure hope so. In my 5 years in Worcester, WoMag seems to have slowly crumbled, and I guess my knee-jerk reaction is to read any WoMag news as part of that narrative of collapse.

City Councilor Kathleen M. Toomey hereby wins the prize for Most Web 2.0 Motion:

19p. Motion-Toomey @ #11c CC – Request City Manager provide a report on the use of blogs, podcasting and posting of a brief on what occurs at Council meetings on the City’s web site. Order adopted

Our readers have commented on this in the past:

I think Kate Toomey and Gary Rosen, both of whom I kinda like, run neck and neck as the Councilor most likely to stumble upon something on the internet and turn it into a Council motion.

Councilor Rosen, you gave it your best.

This morning I began investigating whether the City Council meetings broadcast on Channel 12 are in the public domain. You’d think they would be. If so, I know some local tech activists who’d like to grab them off the Tivo and archive them online.

City Councilor Kate Toomey