About The B Square Bulletin
Towards the end of 2024, after a five-and-a-half-year run, The B Square shut down. About two months later, in late February, The B Square began an effort to relaunch.
Old B Square Mission: To give Bloomington residents an easy on-ramp to understanding the workings of local government, and to give them the information they need to contribute to Bloomington’s civic life.
New B Square Mission: To give Bloomington residents an easy on-ramp to understanding all aspects of the place where they live, and to give them the information they need to help Bloomington’s community thrive.
The B Square’s Vision
Total News—News for All Time: Future, Present, and Past
A newsroom that is founded on a commitment to Future, Present and Past will deliver what today’s local decision-makers need—comprehensive, accurate information about topics in their full context.
Local decision-makers range from elected and appointed officials to business owners, voters, parents of school-aged children, and rank-and-file residents. We’re all decision-makers.
Future. The B Square will help make Bloomington a place where it’s easy for residents to find out what is going to happen. When does the North-South football game start? When is the public hearing on the new tax? When will the school board interview the superintendent candidates? When does the city’s 3rd Street repaving project start?
Present. Bloomington will be a place where it’s easy for residents to find out what just happened. Who won the North-South football game? Did the county council approve the new tax? Who is the new superintendent of schools? Why was traffic backed up on 3rd Street late Tuesday afternoon?
Past. Bloomington will be a place where it’s easy to find out what happened a long time ago. What is the history of the North-South rivalry? How much revenue has the old tax generated for the county over the last 20 years? How many people have had the job of superintendent of schools, and who were they? How many traffic crashes has that stretch of 3rd Street seen over the last 10 years?
How will Residents get Total News?
Future. It will be easy to find out what’s going to happen because Bloomington will be served by a comprehensive online community calendar—made up of syndicated feeds from calendars maintained by event hosts.
Present. It will be easy to learn about events that just happened, because there will be more than one way to find that information. Residents will be able to visit a website where news reports are published and arranged chronologically. Residents can opt to receive an email message with every news report that is published on the website, as soon as the report is published.
Past. It will be easy to learn about what happened a long time ago because Bloomington will be served by a comprehensive online chronicle—a resource for shared facts, where the backbone of each entry is an annotated timeline with links to archived sources.
How will journalists work to serve the mission of Total News?
Reporters in a newsroom that is built on the three-legged stool of Future, Present, and Past will be guided in their coverage choices by the comprehensive online community calendar—made up of syndicated feeds from calendars maintained by event hosts.
A journalist working in a newsroom committed to Total News will approach every news report published on the website with two extra questions: (1) In light of the events that just happened, what information should be added to our local online chronicle? (2) What information, if it had been available in our local online chronicle, would have made this news easier to report?
Working to answer those questions will help define the job of a local journalist. That job will include organizing community work projects for the online chronicle. The broader community’s archival work will be done in concert with, not just long after, the reporting of the news.
In short, by delivering Total News, The B Square will provide residents with the information they need to help Bloomington’s community thrive.