Boston Globe – Page 89

Union don’ts at the Globe

One line I’ve been recycling this week is that the showdown between New York Times Co. management and the Boston Globe unions would not come down to midnight on the 30th day — that union officials, based on their own comments, seemed to understand that both the Times Co. and the overall situation was serious, and would quickly agree to $20 million in cuts as the price of keeping the paper alive.

Well, now I’m not so sure. Coverage during the week has suggested increased intransigence on the part of the unions, and especially of Newspaper Guild president Dan Totten. And today, Christine McConville begins her report in the Boston Herald thusly:

Boston Globe unions are showing signs of digging in against management as frustrated labor leaders say their members have already given up enough in the effort to keep the struggling broadsheet afloat.

Meanwhile, the Herald’s Jay Fitzgerald learns that it might be possible for the Times Co. to place the Globe in bankruptcy even without selling it. That could actually be good news, as it gives Times executives a way of restructuring the paper without having to find a buyer in a brutal economic environment and without having to shut it down. (And has the Herald been indispensable this week or what?)

It is despicable that the Times Co.’s cash-fattened managers have said virtually nothing this week. They owe an explanation to the community at least as much as they do to their employees.

Still, there’s no question that the systemic disaster that’s bringing the newspaper business down has more to do with the Globe’s problems than any specific mistakes by Arthur Sulzberger Jr., Steven Ainsley and crew. So it’s interesting to see, as Adam Reilly of the Boston Phoenix reports, that there may be a mounting insurrection among some reporters against the union leadership, who could conceivably destroy the paper rather than give up perks like lifetime contracts.

So did I leave anything out? Oh, yes. Almost forgot. Howie Carr is an idiot.

A righteous howl

Rory O’Connor has posted a rant about New York Times Co. management of the Boston Globe, picking up where Eileen McNamara left off. Whew!

The future of the Globe’s D.C. bureau

Michael Calderone, at Politico, speculates on the future of the Boston Globe’s Washington bureau.

He’s right to think that it could be endangered. But in addition to the main reason he cites for not closing it — politics remains a major spectator sport in Boston, unlike almost anywhere else — he misses one.

According to insiders I’ve talked with, the Globe’s Washington coverage does very well in search engines and aggregators, making it one of the reasons that Boston.com pulls such impressive numbers.

If the New York Times Co. targets the Washington bureau, then it’s truly slash-and-burn time, as it will be killing off one of the building blocks for future success.

Baron faker comes clean on Twitter

Whoever was posting to Twitter as Boston Globe editor Marty Baron has renamed himself Fake Marty Baron. Good. His (her?) tweets have been mildly amusing. The fakery was not.

Timing is everything

Three months ago I posted the salaries and total compensation packages of the top executives at five troubled newspaper companies, including the New York Times Co., which owns the Boston Globe. Crickets chirped.

Today Christine McConville of the Boston Herald gives us updated Times Co. figures, and it’s the talk of the town — for obvious reasons, given that the Times is demanding a reported $20 million in union givebacks from the Globe as the price of keeping the paper alive.

McConville did some digging. I didn’t know that Globe publisher Steven Ainsley made $1.9 million last year, and the information she’s turned up on options and bonuses is fascinating in a stomach-churning kind of way. You’ve also got to love the nearly $250,000 in moving expenses Ainsley received in 2006.

On WRKO Radio (AM 680) this morning, Tom Finneran and Todd Feinburg were excoriating Times Co. managers for showering themselves with millions while they drove their business into the ground. Media Nation readers know that isn’t right — the entire news industry is falling apart for reasons that go far beyond the ability of the affected companies to turn things around.

But there is a deeper truth, and it isn’t pretty. For years, executives of news organizations — and corporations in general — paid themselves ridiculous amounts of money and argued that it was their expertise that led their companies to be so profitable.

Now we know they were essentially taking credit for the sunrise and paying themselves for it. The fraud has been exposed for all to see.

Globe to raise prices for some customers

The Boston Herald reports that the Boston Globe will raise its prices outside of Greater Boston — not the comprehensive price hike I’ve suggested, but a start.

What we know about the Globe thus far

In my latest for The Guardian, I try to compress four days’ worth of blogging and tweeting on the fate of the Boston Globe into one 900-word summary.

Herald-ing the Globe’s woes

Looks like at least a few Boston Globe staff members are mighty unhappy at their union leaders for keeping them in the dark. Boston Herald media reporter Jessica Heslam writes that the Globe’s Donovan Slack e-mailed her co-workers last Friday demanding some accountability:

With all due respect, I’m starting to wonder about our union leadership and whether we are going in the right direction. Would appreciate your immediate candor about what is being asked of us and exactly what actions you are taking.

The Herald also publishes the entire “Book of Life” (PDF) — 340 Globe employees (some who are no longer there) with lifetime contracts, thought to be a considerable stumbling block in paring the Globe’s expenses and/or preparing it for sale.

In another Herald piece, reporters Jerry Kronenberg and Christine McConville quote former Globe staffer Doug Bailey, who speculates that the New York Times Co. will simply fold some Boston-area news into the New England edition of its flagship paper.

And Eileen McNamara, a former Globe columnist and Pulitzer winner, weighs in with a Herald commentary today whose headline — “Times Pimps, Pillages Globe” — is a pretty accurate reflection of her rage.

My respect for McNamara notwithstanding, her it’s hard to share her anger when the entire business is collapsing — and when other newspaper companies are in even worse shape.

Talking about the Globe on NECN

Jim Braude and I discussed the crisis at the Boston Globe on “BroadSide” last night.

Globe publisher breaks silence

Media Nation has obtained a memo that Boston Globe publisher Steve Ainsley e-mailed to his staff this evening. Here’s the full text:

To all Boston Globe employees —

I know the news over the weekend that highlighted the core issues presented to union leaders in a closed door meeting last week was jarring for all of you. It was certainly not our intention for you to learn of these preliminary discussions through reports in the Globe and other media but since this is how it has played out there are several important points of which you should all be aware.

As you all know by now, several members of the Globe executive team met with all our union leaders last week to review with them the Globe’s financial situation. It remains our standing policy that we never discuss ongoing labor negotiations publicly and we made that commitment to the leaders of all of our unions last week. For that reason I cannot provide more detail today. I can say that we explained that going forward we have to tackle major issues on both revenue and expense fronts and those individual strategies were shared with union leadership.

We will need significant concessions from labor and we are also framing a plan to draw more savings from the nonunion ranks, as we done over the course of the last several months. We also have a strategy in motion which will bring in additional revenue from consumers and advertisers. This plan was presented in some detail as we believed it appropriate to give union leadership a full view of all that is being done to achieve financial stability at The Boston Globe.

It is critical we all keep in mind our objective is to improve the financial performance of the Globe. Period. As bruising as this economic downturn has been to this institution, I believe we will accomplish that objective if all of us, every employee of the Globe, is able to keep our focus. Nothing less will prove successful.

Similarly, it is only fair that management also be prepared to make sacrifices. We have already reduced compensation 5% in 2009 and reduced the management work force by almost 20%. More work is to be done on this front and will be.

I continue to believe that our strength is in our common denominator — we are all employees of The Boston Globe. We have accomplished much in the last few years under difficult circumstances and that should give us all confidence that we can overcome this challenge.

Steve

The e-mail speaks for itself, but I do want to highlight this: “It was certainly not our intention for you to learn of these preliminary discussions through reports in the Globe and other media.”

Ainsley is the publisher of a newspaper. He is in the communications business. Not only has he fallen short in communicating with his employees, but it is mind-boggling to think that he really believed he could keep this a secret.