It’s simple: Listen to the voters

1 Thursday, January 28, 2010  By Eileen McNamara Martha Coakley was not the only loser in the special election for the US Senate seat left vacant by the death of Edward M. Kennedy. The media got mauled, too. From The Boston Globe poll putting Coakley 15 points ahead of Scott Brown days before he hammered

To charge or not to charge for the news

 An Interview with Martin Baron Martin Baron, the Boston Globe’s editor, sat down in his office with CommonWealth magazine editor Bruce Mohl (a former Globe reporter) to talk about the paper’s financial situation and its digital transition. This second installment of the interview is only slightly condensed. Mohl: When the New York Times decided not

CommonWealth magazine Will Provide More Investigative Reporting, Expand Online Presence with $800,000 in Support from The Boston Foundation and Knight Foundation

BOSTON — MassINC today launches a new online version of CommonWealth magazine, the most visible manifestation yet of an $800,000 investment by the Boston and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundations in expanding news coverage in Massachusetts. CommonWealthmagazine.org and MassINC.org will now offer a wealth of journalism and research to engage citizens and policymakers

Seeking to serve

By Alison Lobron  “All I wanted to do was help kids write college essays,” Julie, a 24-year-old friend, told me. “It should have been easy. But I called a few different places that do college prep stuff for kids who can’t afford to hire a tutor, and none of them could figure out how to

Real Talk Health Insurance

By Alison Lobron “I would love to do what you’re doing,” a 20-something friend said. “But I need benefits.” She went on to tell me about her dream of starting an interior design company, a dream she’s put on hold until — well, until someday. I heard comments like hers often in the year I

Lessons from Salongate

The New Republic is heralding a well-reported piece on problems at The Washington Post.  Get used to pieces like this.  As newspapers continue to struggle with declining or disappeared profits, the blame game will resemble a convention of political operatives from the Coakley campaign. The villain of the TNR piece is Katharine Weymouth, who took

The multimedia Globe

An interview with Martin Baron Between layoffs, pay cuts, and the threat of closure, the The Boston Globe had a painful year last year, but Martin Baron, the paper’s editor since 2001, sounds like he’s looking forward to the challenges ahead. He sat down in his office with CommonWealth magazine editor Bruce Mohl (a former

Mark Erlich

An interview with Mark Erlich, Executive Secretary-Treasurer, New England Council of Carpenters  “To understand what’s ahead for the American worker, you have to look back on what’s been happening in this country for the last three decades. From my years in the labor movement and certainly in my lifetime, I’ve watched us become a different kind of

Redefining financial literacy

One of the many lessons that has come out of the sub-prime mortgage crisis, if not the entire economic downturn, is the need for new thinking in the areas of financial literacy and consumer protection.  As part of new program called Family Financial  Skills, MassINC pulled together a group of experts to discuss what can be

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