Ed Kubosiak Jr. has been terminated from his position as the editor of MassLive following an investigation into a domestic violence claim, according to Don Seiffert of the Boston Business Journal. Kubosiak had been suspended several weeks earlier.
MassLive is the website of The Republican newspaper in Springfield. The properties are owned by Advance, a privately held media company that has pursued some interesting strategies in trying to figure out a viable business model for local news. The Massachusetts approach has been to position MassLive as an entity that’s separate from the newspaper, pushing into the Worcester area and even into Greater Boston. The idea of a free, good-quality alternative to The Boston Globe is an interesting one; several years ago, though, MassLive began charging for some of its journalism, which would seem to defeat the purpose.
In New Jersey, Advance has built a digital hub of more than 100 journalists to feed its print newspapers. In Alabama, though, they’re getting out of the print business altogether. (I wrote about those developments back in November.) And in the Cleveland area, Advance has engaged in union-busting. So it’s a mixed bag.
In any event, Kubosiak’s role at MassLive was crucial — he was the vice president of content, essentially serving as the top editor. It will be interesting to see what if any changes Advance makes in its approach now that the company has to hire a replacement.
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I believe Advance Local is a subsidiary of Advance Publications, owned by the descendants of S.I. Newhouse. My grandfather was the editor of the Staten Island Advance, the local paper for which the Newhouse media empire was named. From the stories I heard, everything you write about sounds like a good match for the way S.I. Newhouse ran the Advance: upholder of family values (including no tolerance for domestic violence), not a fan of unions, constant innovation to keep up with technology changes.
It would be interesting to see if Advance Publications is keeping another effort of S.I. Newhouse going — he firmly opposed anti-semitism.