Last Sunday, the Boston Globe debuted a multi-platform series about the life and death of former Patriots football star Aaron Hernandez. At roughly 40,000 print words and four hours of podcasts, “Gladiator” is a bold effort by the Globe’s Spotlight Team to attract consumers who might not be as familiar with the story as we are locally.

On this week’s edition of Beat the Press, Emily Rooney was joined by former CNN White House Correspondent Dan Lothian, Tom Fiedler of Boston University, Dan Kennedy of Northeastern University and Joanna Weiss of Experience Magazine.