New Partnership Between Journalism Students and Boston Globe
COM joins forces with Pulitzer-winning newspaper
All journalism students dream of the day their work will be published for the world to see. Thanks to a new partnership between the College of Communication and the Boston Globe, that dream can now be a reality for students.
The collaboration allows students to submit their work for publication in the “Your Town” section of the Globe’s website, Boston.com. “Your Town” is the paper’s latest initiative to include more local news, providing coverage of 43 neighborhoods and communities in and around Boston.
Thomas Fiedler, dean of COM, credits Fred Bayles, a COM associate professor of journalism and director of the Boston University State House Program, with the idea for the partnership. Fiedler (COM’71) says that under the new agreement, students first work with journalism faculty members to write stories about Boston-area neighborhoods and communities. The assignments are then edited by faculty and passed on to editors at the Globe for further editing and publication.
The collaboration is the latest in a series of partnerships BU has developed with local news organizations. Students also provide coverage to other New England newspapers through the journalism department’s State House Program and through the Boston University Washington Journalism Center’s Washington News Service.
“Getting published in any way is always a rush, and to be included in something as prestigious as the Boston Globe’s website is a real honor,” says Paul Squire (COM’11). Elizabeth Mehren, a journalism professor, initially approached Squire about participating in the program after he wrote a piece about the Coolidge Corner Theatre.
“She told me about the BU News Service and said that with a bit more reporting it might be something the Globe would be interested in,” he says. “I went back out, did another few interviews, and it was up on the Globe website the next week.” Squire was the first student whose work was published under the partnership.
Working with the Boston Globe and other local news organizations is beneficial for all parties involved, says Fiedler. “The Globe will be getting original, hyper-local content for its new site and the students will be getting material for their portfolios or demo reels.”
In a press release from the paper announcing the collaboration, Globe regional editor David Dahl said the arrangement was a win-win for both Globe readers and the student journalists. “It provides ‘Your Town’ readers with even more local coverage and enriches the educational experience of BU’s students.”
Squire offers some advice for students interested in participating. “If you think you have a story, submit it to your professor or talk to someone in COM and ask if they’d like to run it. You never know until you try,” he says. “The opportunity is just too great to pass up, especially considering how competitive the journalism industry is now.”
Nicole Rojas can be reached at nrojas@bu.edu; follow her on Twitter at @nrojas0131.
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