It’s hard to believe the Boston Globe was paying freelancer Rich Barlow so much that it will save more than a pittance by letting him go (via Universal Hub). But these are desperate times, and I’m not going to argue that the Globe should keep paying him the money.
Rather, I’m going to argue that a newspaper has to appeal to many niches in order to survive, and that Barlow’s Saturday column — “Spiritual Life” — is an important niche. In Michael Paulson, the Globe has an outstanding full-time religion reporter. Could Paulson take it over? How about an intern working under his supervision?
I realize there are limits to the do-more-with-less philosophy, but dropping “Spiritual Life” entirely is going to alienate quite a few readers. It already is — just check out the comments.
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Very sad indeed
Maybe the cancellation of “Spiritual Life” is a sign that the Globe no longer has a soul?
I don’t read Spiritual Life. In fact, I didn’t even realize it existed. But I don’t get the Saturday Globe, either …But I’m not so sure it’s the wrong move. The Globe needs to decide what it can do great, then do that and only that. I don’t know that appealing to (or just trying to) lots of niches is the path to media success. In fact, I’d be inclined to argue the opposite is true today.
This seems as good a place as any to discuss what papers should and shouldn’t cover. One big disappointment for me is the lack of explanation in the regional press of what precisely would be the cons of letting the automakers go bankrupt. While Bush and others state that doing so would be practically sinful, from where I sit, I don’t see how the impact of the Big 3 going bankrupt would be much different than it was for thousands of other companies that have filed for Chapter 11 and restructured. Almost every major airline has done just that since 2001, with much less fanfare.But the coverage has devolved into he said, he said.