‘Everything Buffalo Grove’ debuts as Facebook hub

The Daily Herald announced today that it has introduced Everything Buffalo Grove, an independent “Facebook newspaper” aimed at becoming an interactive hub for news, information and conversation in town.

“We’ve launched an exciting experiment in community journalism,” Editor John Lampinen said in a letter to readers. “It’s not designed to replace the Daily Herald, but to be both a supplement to your daily newspaper and an engaging outreach toward those who for whatever reason may never have begun a newspaper tradition. ... Come help us innovate the future of journalism.”

The Web address is www.Facebook.com/groups/BuffaloGroveIllinois. Facebook members also can find it by keyword-searching Buffalo Grove on Facebook.

The initiative was created in collaboration with several local institutions. Lampinen said a key to the experiment’s success will be the amount of involvement the public brings to it.

“The idea isn’t for us to run a news page on Facebook. The idea is for us to host an independent community page as a partnership with the community — with people who live, work, play, school and worship in Buffalo Grove and with those who used to,” he said. “How it’s all going to work, well, that’s part of the experiment. We’ve got some ideas, but they’re just a starting point. We’re the host, but we don’t intend to run the show. What it becomes is up to the people who actively participate. We’re excited about the possibilities.”