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by Robert Falcione December 12, 2006 — The email last Saturday about John Dennis, special attorney for the Whitehall land purchase, charging the town $325 per hour to read HopNews was hilarious to ponder, but then more than understandable after digesting the implications of it. A similar experience happened earlier this year. As the TV cameras stood sentinel on their tripods in the conference room of Hopkinton Police station, and the photographers and reporters mulled about waiting to hear about what would become Hopkinton's first homicide in eleven years, "...the District Attorney’s Director of Communications looked around to see if all of the major players had arrived, so he could feel comfortable in moving forward. 'Is Channel 7 here? The Herald?' he asked. 'Hopkinton News is here,' I said, provoking a roomful of laughter." [Excerpt from I Saw Neil Entwistle by Robert Falcione] The media people laughed because Hopkinton is such a small town, and they had never heard of the Hopkinton News; and I knew we weren't on his list — not yet anyway. We eventually got on the lists of the people who wanted their message out, and on the lists of people wanting information from us. READ FULL STORY Before long, Boston, New York, national and international media started knocking on our door making our acquaintance, looking for information, because we proved we had it. And we had it because of hard work and long hours, and our local position. They were reading HopNews and getting paid to do it! The reporters, by the way, were very impressive. The reporters on the street, like Lisa Kocian of the Boston Globe, Christina Hager of Channel 4, and Jeff Glor of Channel 7 research and write their own stories. The TV reporters also produce their own pieces, even adding the cut-in footage. The Whitehall story became huge in town when the discrepancies between the Town Meeting price and the appraisals came in, and HopNews had it first. HopNews covered it well, going to meetings and reporting the votes and discussions of the meetings, as well as speaking with the principals whenever they agreed to talk. That is apparently why John Dennis read HopNews, but a closer look at the billing shows even more detail. The October billing shows that he only charged for reading HopNews once. Apparently he began enjoying it so much he stopped charging.
Here are a few of the stories about the Whitehall land deal, the reasons why attorneys and everyone else reads HopNews.com: http://www.hopnews.com/whitehall_08_14_06.html http://www.hopnews.com/whitehall_08_15_06.html http://www.hopnews.com/speranza_09_19_06.htm http://www.hopnews.com/page3_68.html Missed HopNews Mini-video on October 1 of Sept 28 CPC Whitehall vote. http://www.hopnews.com/page3_69.html Planning Board votes $250,000 http://www.hopnews.com/falcione_select_10_10_2006.htm http://www.hopnews.com/page3_70.html Injunction hearing http://www.hopnews.com/page3_71.html Grant denied - Selectmen vote funds. |
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