With negotiations at the Boston Globe now down to the wire, the Boston Phoenix weighs in with a major takeout by media reporter Adam Reilly and an editorial.
Reilly’s got lots of nice details, including a great quote from an anonymous (of course) Globe staffer about editor Marty Baron: “His hands are tied. I think he’s fucking heartbroken that he can’t do more.” Adam also has some insights into the ongoing tensions between the union leadership and the newsroom.
The editorial ponders the possibility of life without the Globe — an unlikely prospect, perhaps, but one that’s not completely out of the question given what’s happened during the past month. Know this: someone at the Phoenix really, really doesn’t like the Boston Herald.
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The Herald is gleefully trashing not just the Globe’s owners and editors and writers, but also the Globe’s readers. This leaves the Herald in a very poor position to capture those readers in the event that the Globe folds.
But Ron, that assumes that Globe readers actually look at the Herald now. I’m kind of doubting that. And I’m betting you that Purcell is even now on the phone with his bud Murdoch about how to ramp up the press run Saturday. Just in case.
Adam writes: “. . .it’s not easy to imagine a pro-Globe rally that would really get the adrenaline pumping.” So true. While there were a couple of hundred people on one side of Faneuil Hall at the rally, there were just as many circled around a clown attracting attention with an extension ladder in which the audience was participating. Quincy Market was solid people. Hardly anyone cared about the Globe except Globe union employees. What a shame.A shame, too, because a lot of money has generously been paid from the Globe to owners, directors, officers and workers, far more, I suspect, than envisioned by General Taylor, Eben Jordan or Adolph Ochs 135 years ago.The Internet helps change the business model, but so did the demise of Jordan Marsh, for starters, followed by Filene’s and now Filene’s Basement, and many other major advertising retailers.If all of the descendants and board directors and officers had been paid newspaper salaries, and were truly newspaper people instead of just collecting and taking the profits for personal use, there’d be plenty of cash in the kitty to keep this paper going many more years and to develop innovations and strategy that meets the future in a profitable format.How can we trust our politicians without the Globe participating in the Fourth Estate? The Herald is fun, quite relaxed, very attacking and regardless, will it be here in ten years? And, furthermore, 150,000 circulation is not enough penetration to save anything or to lead the way to keep politicians honest.A couple of jerky kids can accomplish more with YouTube in a few hours at no expense with the exception of defense attorneys, as we saw last week with Dominos.
I’m going to disagree on some of the harsh negative comments about the Herald. The top 10 feature was childish. Howie is pretty despicable but that’s what he does. The other talk show guy really shouldn’t be writing anything for public consumption. But, the straight coverage from the news and business sections has been thorough, straightforward, and comprehensive. Every day with this story the Herald has been proving it can conceivably step up and fill the void if, God forbid, the void ever opens up in Boston’s newspaper world.Meanwhile the Phoenix keeps me wondering, would Mindich ever try to go daily if the Globe shut down?
The rule was that with a weekly you could make money every week, but with a daily not every day. I would doubt Mindich is the buzzard circling overhead for prey on Mayday.
Would that the Globe were folded, it is highly unlikely the Herald would benefit much. It would gain a few advertisers, but having spent nearly two decades in publishing, I know well that few companies will suddenly swallow their pride and better judgment and reallocate dollars to a lesser print vehicle. They will find something altogether different, or not spend at all.
I decided to try doing what I might do in the absence of the Globe to find information about our regional swine flu situation. On the one hand, the mass.gov site's "NEWS & UPDATES" item eventually refers me to the Globe and AP for further information, but on the other hand, the publichealth.blog.state.ma.us and the CDC's cdc.gov/swineflu have helpful information. I don't know if I should infer that government websites make news reporting less crucial, and, of course, if I didn't have a computer and internet service I couldn't access the websites, but it interests me that the function of newspaper as gatekeeper of information to me has changed.
“Know this: someone at the Phoenix really, really doesn’t like the Boston Herald.”Someone up pretty high? Someone who didn’t like the coverage of a certain beer party, and before that, a certain divorce proceeding?Bob in Peabody
Bob: and a certain judge’s TV career. Adam’s excellent piece quotes Charlie Pierce as being ashamed of having been affiliated with the Herald. Some of us liked Charlie better, IMHO, before he started gratuitously politicizing every issue for no discernable reason. (Sort of like the Globe before their fixation on sexual orientation). He should know that most of the angry leftists he’s reaching out to already agree with him.
Lighten up, Francis.