A Globe story reporting that former Channel 5 anchor person Natalie Jacobson, retired from Boston TV since 2007, will be featured on a new Worcester-based local news site caught my eye this morning. The venture is not some shoestring operation cobbled together by a few local bloggers. Instead, it is a well-financed operation called Go Local 24 that’s already been in operation in Providence for eighteen months. Jumping to Go Local 24’s own website, I was greeted by this:

Today, consumers are changing how they collect and use information but traditional media is not responding . . .

Good so far. It goes on to explain that at a time when individuals want more local news, traditional media outlets are cutting back (or have already cut back) on the resources needed to produce the desired volume of local news because financially-required layoffs and cutbacks. Those same consumers want to receive their news across all platforms – smart phones, tablets, laptops, email, social media. Go Local 24 claims to provide both.

This article in Behind the Headlines, a Worcester-based blog focused on local media, describes the impact of Go Local 24 in Providence:

GoLocal’s Providence site has made some serious waves in the past year and a half breaking several big stories. The site has pounced on a gaping hole being left open by the Providence Journal. It’s a mix of features, politics, news and voices from the community in the form of non-paid bloggers they call Mindsetters. It’s smart branding. GoLocal dodges the old police scanner and fire beats, choosing instead to concentrate on enterprise journalism.

In the evolving world of local media, this is a very interesting development that bears close watching for obvious reasons.