Media Nation

Boston Herald business editor Greg Gatlin leaps onto the Herald’s Messenger Blog in order to whack the Phoenix’s Adam Reilly. Gatlin’s upset that Reilly allowed an anonymous “astute Boston observer” to call the Herald “basically irrelevant” in his article this week about the Herald and its new/old editor, Kevin Convey.

Reilly responds that Gatlin may be right — that “the source’s anonymity should have made me think twice about using such a damning line.”

Media Nation’s take: Reilly’s in a tough position. A journalist should not, except under very unusual circumstances, use anonymous sources to attack people or organizations. It’s a basic rule of the craft, and it’s one I reminded my students of last week.

And yet. Writing from experience as the Phoenix’s media critic from 1994 through 2005, I can tell you that if you follow that rule too strictly when covering the notoriously insular, paranoid press, you’ll rarely get a quote that’s either candid or memorable. This is not like covering politics — people can lose their jobs if they tell you what they really mean and attach their names to it. Or, in the case of the “astute Boston observer,” he or she may fear retribution in the pages of the Herald.

I still remember one occasion when I allowed an anonymous source to deliver a rather stinging rebuke to his news organization. Within days, this same source said exactly the opposite — on the record — to another newspaper. I can assure you that he was being candid with me and dissembling to the other paper.

If Reilly erred here, it was perhaps in not characterizing his anonymous source sufficiently enough for readers to get a feel for where the “irrelevant” quote was coming from.

If you tune in “Greater Boston” on Channel 2 this evening, you’ll hear me say that James Gordon Bennett, whose New York Herald, founded in 1835, was the first recognizably modern newspaper, should have been named to the Atlantic Monthly’s list of the top 100 influential Americans. In fact, he was, at No. 69. I don’t know how I missed that.

I’m sticking by my argument that Chuck Berry and Bob Dylan should have been on the list, too.

Adam Reilly of the Phoenix has a good wrap-up of the latest changes at the Boston Herald — and an even better blog item.

It seems that GateHouse Media, the Fairport, N.Y.-based corporation to which Herald owner Pat Purcell sold his Community Newspaper Co. (CNC) chain earlier this year, is seeking an online divorce.

At the moment, CNC’s Web presence is through Town Online, part of Purcell’s Herald Interactive. But GateHouse wants to switch to Wicked Local, a promising blend of traditional newspaper content and reader contributions rolled out in Plymouth by the parent company of the Patriot Ledger of Quincy, which GateHouse acquired at the same time that it bought CNC. (The Ledger and its progeny, the Enterprise of Brockton and a string of weeklies, were folded into CNC at the time of the sale.)

It’s been pretty obvious for some time that CNC major domo Kirk Davis, brought in from the Ledger papers, has regarded Wicked Local as the future. Plug in the name of any Eastern Massachusetts town, like hamilton.wickedlocal.com, sharon.wickedlocal.com or framingham.wickedlocal.com, and you’ll be taken straight to the Plymouth site. The names have been reserved, and it’s just a matter of setting them up with their own content.

CNC and the Herald still share stories. But that will continue only for as long as Davis thinks it’s in CNC’s best interest.

Updates: (1) MTS is no fun, but he’s right; (2) the Globe’s Robert Gavin quotes me in a “what it means” piece; (3) a bit of clarification: the expiration of GateHouse’s agreement with Town Online was agreed to at the time of the sale earlier this year. This may be a blow to Purcell, but it’s a blow he knew was coming for months.

Now that state and local officials have agreed to let the feds investigate what happened in Danvers, I anticipate that this will be my last post on the subject. But be sure to read Beth Daley’s story in today’s Boston Globe, which makes it clear that chemicals being stored at the blast site hadn’t been inspected for years because no one was doing his job, at the federal, state or local level. Good grief.

Tom Dalton of the Salem News has more.

Only a fool would suggest that Boston Herald publisher Pat Purcell is obligated to go broke trying to save his struggling newspaper. But you’d think that at a time like this — when people are leaving and those who remain are having their wages frozen — that Purcell the landlord would ease up on Purcell the publisher. Apparently not.

In the new Weekly Dig, Paul McMorrow claims that, in fact, the Herald must pay hefty rent to Purcell for the right to use its own building. McMorrow writes:

[T]he possible rent figures floated by insiders — we heard numbers as high as $250,000 a month — make one wonder whether Purcell is gorging himself while bleeding his own paper dry. One insider noted that while Purcell asks his employees to take $12-a-week pay cuts, he maintains a manse in Weston and large vacation homes in Vermont and Martha’s Vineyard.

Purcell’s spokeswoman would neither confirm nor deny any rent scenario we raised.

Apart from the haziness of “possible rent figures floated by insiders,” this does raise a serious question. As McMorrow notes, Purcell’s mantra is that the Herald has to stand on its own. But you’d think that Purcell could at least consider the Herald’s building part of, you know, the Herald.

Up until today, my favorite story about the Lowell Sun involved the time in 1997 that then-editor Jack Costello — doubling as chair of a local government agency — banged out a story under one of his reporter’s bylines, even typing in quotes and attributing them to himself.

“Whether I generate that on the computer or tell it to a reporter, it’s irrelevant, isn’t it?” Costello told me in 1998. “I am the chairman, and you would logically go to the chairman of the arena commission to get a quote. You know what I’m saying?” Oh, yes. Absolutely.

Sadly, the tale of Two-Hat Jack may now have to give way to this Steve Bailey gem in today’s Boston Globe. It seems that the Sun is throwing a 50th-birthday party for U.S. Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Lowell. And if you’re a local business owner, you’re invited — to buy an ad in a special commemorative supplement, the proceeds from which will enrich both the Sun and a foundation Meehan heads. Bailey writes:

A full page in this special “Marty Meehan at 50” keepsake edition goes for $3,000; a half-page is $1,900. The back page, in color, is $6,000. If you are looking to feed at the trough — and who isn’t? — are you really going to say no when the congressman’s office calls? The only real question is can I get away with a quarter page (price: $1,250)?

Needless to say, this blows through every journalistic ethics test imaginable. And unless Denver-based owner Dean Singleton, head of MediaNews Group, does something about it — like, by the end of today — it pretty much makes a mockery of Singleton’s efforts to transform his image from media bottom-feeder to respectable publisher.

Earlier this fall I spotted Christian Science Monitor reporter Jill Carroll at a reception at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center, where she’s a fellow. I don’t want to read too much into my observations from across a room, but she struck me as shy and fragile, sticking close to her little group. I assumed she was still coming to terms with the ordeal she went through as a hostage in Iraq last winter.

Then, a few weeks ago, Karla Vallance, managing editor of the Monitor’s Web site, spoke to my Journalism of the Web class. Vallance was in charge of putting together this online presentation about what happened to Carroll. Among other things, Vallance told us that Carroll was initially reluctant to cooperate because she feared retribution against herself and her family.

Why am I telling you this? Because today, in the Boston Herald’s Inside Track, we learn that Carroll recently declined to be interviewed by WFXT-TV (Channel 25) when she was approached in a Harvard Square bar — and that, therefore, Carroll’s stint at Harvard had obviously made her “rather full of oneself,” as she “rather snootily” dismissed the Fox 25 reporter.

For good measure, the Tracksters describe Carroll as a “former reporter.” In fact, she’s on staff at the Monitor.

A pointless, wrongheaded, nasty little item.

Seth Gitell, a certified FOMN (Friend of Media Nation), has a sharp profile of Boston Globe executive vice president Al Larkin in the new issue of Boston Magazine. Gitell’s overall thesis is that the New York Times Co. might be doing better with its Boston outpost today if its officials had spent more time listening to Larkin, the last of the Globe’s Old Guard.

A bonus: retired editor Matt Storin, now at Notre Dame, checks in. Here’s Storin on Larkin: “He’s invaluable — maybe the most valuable player. He knows Boston, knows the players, and keeps up relationships very well. He’s a survivor because he understands power, he understands tribal forces. He has a good memory.”

The Boston Globe lends its editorial voice to those calling on Danvers Fire Chief James Tutko to get over himself and led the feds do their job. In the lead editorial today, the Globe argues:

Those who lost their homes and narrowly escaped death or serious injury deserve an independent federal probe that examines whether state and local failures might have contributed to the blast. Despite the presence of hazardous materials, it appears the plant wasn’t inspected by state authorities for several years. Federal authorities also will need to look closely at enforcement of local fire codes.

Yes, that’s right. By refusing to allow federal inspectors to come in, local officials are opening themselves up to accusations that they’re engaged in some sort of cover-up. Too harsh? Perhaps. But this turf war is inexplicable. You can’t blame people for wondering.

Update: The Salem News reports that State Fire Marshal Stephen Coan is worried that the U.S. Chemical Safety Board’s trained investigators would compromise what may prove to be a crime scene. On a credibility scale of 1 to 10, Coan’s explanation strikes me as about a minus-2. What is going on?

I’m tempted to saddle Ken Chandler with the blame for the Boston Herald’s plummeting circulation. But then I remember: Oh, yeah. The Web. The Herald claims that some 2 million people visit its Web site every month. Divide that by 30 days, and you’ve got 67,000. Add that to the weekday print circulation of 230,000 and you’ve got nearly 300,000. If Pat Purcell could sell that many papers every Monday through Friday, his tabloid wouldn’t be in trouble. (And yes, I know that one Web visitor doesn’t equal one print reader, but you get the idea.)

Chandler, the paper’s editorial director and acting editor for the past several years, is moving on, according to the Weekly Dig. His replacement: Kevin Convey, the managing editor. No doubt the two jobs will be consolidated into one. Thus, what this means more than anything is that Purcell no longer has to pay Chandler’s salary (although Chandler will be doing some consulting). Without question, Chandler was getting paid a lot more than some of the folks who’ve been leaving the Herald lately, either voluntarily or not.

As for what it means beyond that, who knows? Convey is smart, solid and well-liked. He was co-managing editor from the mid-1990s until about four years ago. Convey left to run Purcell’s community-newspaper chain (sold off last spring), and was brought back to One Herald Square after the other two members of the ruling troika, editor Andy Costello and managing editor Andrew Gully, departed in 2004.

Chandler’s Herald was a hell of a lot tabloidier (if that’s a word) than Costello’s. Over time, though, it calmed down. And despite a dizzying succession of departures, the paper continues to show verve and a competitive spirit. I don’t know if the Herald will change much under Convey. Frankly, though, I’m optimistic that Convey will take steps to make the paper smarter. He can start by banishing the word “perv” (excuse me — “PERV”) from headlines.

Here’s a statement from Brian Whelan, president of Local 31032 of The Newspaper Guild, which represents more than 200 editorial and business-side employees at the Herald: “There are a lot of intricate issues right now concerning the future of the Boston Herald. All of us, Ken Chandler and Kevin Convey included, are doing everything we can to keep our newspaper strong and viable. We have worked well in the past with Ken and look forward to working with Kevin far into the future.”

And here’s what Convey told the troops today, according to the Herald’s Jesse Noyes: “On the one hand, I aim to try to keep the paper vital in print by focusing on enterprise, attitude and pop culture as well as by maintaining its traditional strengths in news, sports and business. On the other hand, finding ways to translate the paper’s particular appeal on the Web is a key part of the job as well. And all this has to be done in one of the most challenging business environments.”