'Boston Globe' Ombud Explains Paper's WiFi Future

By: Jay DeFoore Boston Globe Ombudsman Richard Chacon has seen the paper's future, and at least a small part of it is in free WiFi hotspots.

Writing in the paper's Sunday edition, Chacon explained how the company is attempting to keep up with the times by creating "WiFi Pulse Points" whereby commuters with portable computers can read "train schedules, restaurants, history, and comments from other people who pass through the building."

The sites -- now operating at South Station, Newbury Street and in Roxbury Crossing -- allow users to obtain or exchange information about a surrounding community. "But it does not allow Internet access," Chacon writes.

Chacon says that the hotspots are "one of several high-tech projects intended to demonstrate that even as the newspaper loses circulation, it is searching hard for ways to hold on to readers."

Other initiatives include what Globe Editor Martin Baron described as efforts to "enhance the print product on the website."

"In one project, web editors will be assigned to work directly with news editors to explore ways to make stories more multi-media oriented, with audio clips from interviews, narration from reporters, or video shot from the scene," Chacon writes.

In yet another effort to "enter the 21st century, Chacon says he is launching an Ombudsman blog to interact with readers and publish the many letters and e-mails he receives.