It looks like folks at the Boston Globe and the New York Times Co. have decided to get smart and take some of Boston Herald owner Pat Purcell’s money rather than try to put him out of business.
According to reports, the Globe is on the verge of a deal to print and distribute the Herald in the Boston area. It’s not the first time such an arrangement has been proposed, but it’s the first time the Globe has come this close to saying yes. A trusted Media Nation source credits Globe publisher Christopher Mayer for recognizing that the Herald isn’t going away and reversing the anti-Herald stance taken by previous publishers.
The unfortunate part of this is that the Herald would have to lay off its truck drivers. But on the trauma scale, that doesn’t approach Purcell’s decision a few years ago to shut down his presses and outsource much of the printing to a Wall Street Journal plant in Chicopee.
The Globe covers the story here, and the Herald here. The Associated Press quotes yours truly.
Discover more from Media Nation
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Major contributing factor: price of fuel, Chicopee to Boston. Limiting factor: Finding a press & plant that can handle the work. Not fond of H, but I’d hate to see Boston become a one-paper town. Wouldn’t bet against it, though.
@LFNeilson: Boston has many papers. It’s a one-daily town.
If this happens, will it officially make Howie Carr a “Morrissey Boulevard bumkisser”? In any case, I’d say he’s already there. His treatment of George W. Bush over the past few years is drearily reminicent of Mike Barnicle’s valentines to “Jimmy” Bulger, and David Nyhan’s “Tiger Beat”-like passion for the Kennedys and the Clintons. I’d say Howie’s now become the mirror image of what he hates. (Or, to put it his way, he’s become a “Republican rumpswab”.)
Last Sunday’s Herald was printed too early to have the final Celtics score, a playoff game at the Garden. That’s for a home-delivered paper in the city, not some distant outlying town. Intolerable for a paper that’s making its biggest competitive push in the sports pages. Hopefully this will solve that problem.