A panel discussion with:
Lisa Williams, MIT Media Lab fellow and CEO of Placeblogger, the largest searchable index of local weblogs, will talk about the changing landscape for local news startups. Placeblogger now tracks thousands of grassroots, independent local news sites. But are these sites filling the gap left by traditional newsrooms? Ms. Williams will discuss how startup news sites are changing and which ones are beginning to dig deeper.

Robert Kempf: As vice president for product and technology at Boston.com, as well as the Your Town hyper local initiative, Kempf is responsible for product strategy and development in support of editorial, revenue and community initiatives. Since joining the company in 2006 he has led site redesign, local search, real estate, community, hyper local, mobile and video product launches – all in support of the site’s overall strategic mission to grow local reach.

Greg Reibman is vice president of Content, Development and Partnerships for GateHouse Media New England's network of 161 Wicked Local and eight daily and regional sites. He is also publisher of 18 GateHouse-owned newspapers in Greater Boston, including the Cambridge Chronicle, Somerville Journal, Brookline TAB, Newton TAB and Waltham News Tribune. He was previously a deputy managing editor at the Boston Herald.

Liz Taurasi is the first regional editor for Patch.com in the Boston area. An award-winning editor and reporter, hyper-local community journalism has been Liz's passion for as far back as she can remember. In her 19-year journalism career, Liz has worked for several community newspapers as a reporter, editor and assistant managing editor. A winner of two first place New England Press Association Awards for her reporting and column writing, Liz is also proud to be a member of a team which captured two FOLIO Eddie Gold Awards, including one for online content, as well as a Jesse H. Neal Award. After a four-year stint in magazine publishing, as executive editor for Reed Business Information's Design News Liz is back to her roots and looking forward to working with some of the brightest local editors Massachusetts has to offer.

Moderator: Dan Kennedy Dan's blog, Media Nation, tracks what is happening in the news media throughout Massachusetts and beyond. He is an assistant professor at Northeastern University’s School of Journalism, specializing in new-media trends. He also writes a weekly online column for The Guardian’s Comment is Free America section, and was a finalist for a Syracuse University Mirror Award in media commentary in both 2008 and 2009.

Time: 6-8 p.m.
6-7 is general schmoozing (great time to meet interesting people).
7-8 is panel discussion.

Directions: http://bostonglobe.co...
(btw, plenty of parking at the Globe and easy walk from Red Line's JFK/UMass stop.