Boston.com buys Boston Dirt Dogs

Thursday, May 27th, 2004

Here’s a press release from the mothership about Boston.com buying Boston Dirt Dogs.

[Boston.com editor Teresa] Hanafin said, “We want to give Red Sox fans as many opportunities to talk and debate about sports as possible, and Boston Dirt Dogs is the perfect forum for that. Our users love joining the conversation about sports online every day, whether it’s sending us photos for a Johnny Damon look-alikes gallery, creating party recipes for the Patriots’ Super Bowl run or ranting about a managerial move in the previous night’s game.”

I think this is a great move for Boston.com; I’d like to see them buy up other locally-focused weblogs. The next obvious choice would be Boston Common. Adam does a great job pulling together the best of the local weblogs; it’s a natural fit with Boston.com.

I’ll have to walk upstairs and ask Teresa if they could do that…

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 27th, 2004 at 7:39 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

No Responses to “Boston.com buys Boston Dirt Dogs”

  1. adamg Says:
    May 27th, 2004 at 8:08 pm

    Only if I get to work with Eric Bauer :-) .

  2. chris Says:
    May 28th, 2004 at 6:46 am

    But won’t the Dirt Dog’s site lose its appeal now that it is owned by a major newspaper? Paft of the appeal of that site is that it is independent.

  3. Jason Says:
    May 28th, 2004 at 8:49 am

    They’re buying the talent and the voice; the last thing they’d do is squelch.

    Will he be subjected to more rigorous fact-checking? Probably. When I write for the Globe, my standards are different then when I’m writing here.

    I’m also guessing they’ll boston.com-ify the design. If you think that the visual design is a key part of the charm, then that could be a problem.

  4. Teresa Hanafin, editor of Boston.com Says:
    May 28th, 2004 at 12:44 pm

    Hey, guys, Jason is right: We are going to hold BostonDirtDogs to the same editorial standards as the rest of the site, but we’re going to work really hard NOT to squelch its spirit. But I am torn about the design. I think the big headlines etc. are part of its charm, and our plan is to keep it exactly the way it is, but is that why you visit BostonDirtDogs? Or would you not mind seeing the design cleaned up a little to make it more readable?

  5. Dirt Dog Says:
    June 2nd, 2004 at 12:03 pm

    I think it’s just beautiful with the 80pt. headlines :-) . Design could definitely be improved. I am not a web designer and was limited to MS FrontPage, so that should change.

    I would like to see some permalinks and maybe some other features.

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