Business & Tech
16 Pay-For-Play Local MA News Sites ID'd In NYT Report
The Metro West Times. The Plymouth Reporter. The North Boston News. They are part of a sprawling network of local journalism lookalikes.
MASSACHUSETTS — Sixteen websites The New York Times identified as part of a pay-for-play network posing as local news sites have made their way to Massachusetts, seeking to fill a media gap with propaganda.
The network spans all 50 states and has nearly 1,300 sites that look like real news outlets — for instance, The Metro West Times is strikingly close to The MetroWest Daily News — but are populated with press releases and stories "ordered up by dozens of conservative think tanks, political operatives, corporate executives and public-relations professionals," a Times investigation found.
On Thursday morning, the Metro West Times' lead story — one of the only stories on its somewhat barren site — was about Gov. Charlie Baker receiving a D grade in fiscal management. It was also the only featured story on several of their sites, including West Massachusetts News and Merrimack Valley News. The Bay State News had a story on the state losing $306 million in hotel tax revenue. The bylines read Metric Media News Service.
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Below are a list of similar sites in Massachusetts identified by The Times:
- Bay State News
- Bean Town Times
- Bristol Reporter
- Cape Cod Ledger
- Massachusetts Business Daily
- Merrimack Valley News
- Metro West Times
- Mid Massachusetts News
- NC Massachusetts News
- Norfolk Reporter
- North Boston News
- Plymouth Reporter
- Springfield Record
- West Massachusetts News
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