Website hopes to fill gap it sees in news coverage of 3-state rural region 'filled with smart people'

Two former New York City journalists have launched a website aimed at serving a four-county, three-state rural region they say is underserved by traditional, mainstream media. Rural Intelligence is the brainchild of Marilyn Bethany and Dan Shaw, who have both worked as editors and reporters at The New York Times and New York magazine. They say they hope to provide "reliable information source for people like themselves, who routinely do business and seek recreation and entertainment in four counties: Berkshire in Massachusetts, Columbia and northern Dutchess in New York, and northern Litchfield in Connecticut. (MapQuest image: star on Millerton, N.Y., biggest town near junction of the three states)

Bethany and Shaw "have taken their combined 40 years of experience in print journalism with the technology of the day to create this Rural Intelligence, which treats this uniquely sophisticated region as one big neighborhood," the site says. "Their hope is that sharing information will foster a sense of community that transcends county and state boundaries. Rural Intelligence is the place where full-time residents and weekenders can come together to share their passion for culture and country life." The seven-person staff divides its content into sections about food, arts, style, road trips, community, kids and, perhaps of most interest to the national audience, an AgriCulture blog.

We asked Shaw if the site's name was chosen to confront or refute the notion of many uirbanites that "rural" is a synonym for "unsophisticated." He replied, "It was chosen not as a political statement so much as for the fact that the region we call home is very rural, which is quite amazing considering it is 100 miles from Manhattan. And it is filled with smart people; thus, Rural Intelligence." Visit the site here.